Running clubs are all the rage. Millennials and Gen Z are using them to find love and friendship. [Video]

When Justin Shields started the Venice Run Club in August 2020, he wasn’t looking for love.

Shortly before, he had deleted all the dating apps on his phone because he felt they were a “waste of time,” he told Business Insider.

And besides, Shields, now 34, who works in tech sales in Los Angeles, was focused on his new endeavor: a nonprofit that the run club was meant to drum up support for.

A month after Shields started VRC, an enthusiastic runner who worked in advertising named Erin offered to revamp the club’s socials for free. After a flirty DM slide on Instagram, their conversations quickly transitioned from business to pleasure, and Shields invited her on a run outside the club, just the two of them.

He had never found anyone he could see himself raising a family with until he met Erin, now 29. They married within the year.