It's true that running is more commonly associated with bulletproof coffee and protein shakes – but we reckon running plus pastries is a much more appealing combo. Apparently, we're not alone – based on the popularity of Sydney's pastry-related social running clubs. The running clubs with a pastry-based reward (notably Croissant Run Club and Unofficial Run Club) began to pop up in Sydney back in 2022, with group runs ending at a carefully chosen bakery for a social pastry session. As they gain popularity, the huge groups of runners are becoming something of a spectacle on Sydney streets – in the most delightfully wholesome way.
If you happened to pass Milsons Point’s Loulou on Friday, January 19, you’ll have seen a crowd of 678 sweaty pastry-enthusiasts spilling onto the street with a well-earned baked treat. This particular crowd arrived at the tiny neighbourhood bistro courtesy of Unofficial Run Club, whose group runs finish here every Friday morning, attracting a group of runners that has reportedly grown by almost 100 per cent week on week.
“Fourteen weeks ago we realised that it was going to be something bigger than we ever imagined, when 35 people showed up and we didn't know most of them – we’re expecting over 1,000 runners to join us on January 26,” explains Chad Cohen, who co-founded Unofficial Run Club with friends and colleagues Sander Dalhuisen, Sam Dreyfus, Josh Wainstein and Sarah Gellatly.
This particular run club began as a group of friends, who had been making the weekly trek across the Bridge for a year before they extended the invitation to friends of friends. And though much of Unofficial Run Club’s success can be put down to an exceptionally well-executed social media presence (Cohen and two other co-founders of URC form the team behind digital production house Fortem Media), we’re willing to agree that there’s something in the croissant component.
“For us the finish line at LouLou was about celebrating an epic feat with close friends and giving each other the opportunity to connect with people over something yummy,” Cohen explains.
And the Unofficial Run Club team aren’t alone in this approach: with Croissant Run Club and Pastry Yourself (an offshoot of the Pace Yourself Run Club) operating on a similar run-then-pastry basis. The theory stands that by incorporating the hunt for a sweet treat into the run club format, the pressure is off – making the event more social than competitive.
"I think the croissant takes the pressure off the running part, the club is very much a social run club. It means when the run is finished we get to sit down chat over a coffee and pastry and no one is just standing around awkwardly. You really get to build connections over the croissants. It also makes it appealing to novice runners because we are so social," explains Tara Gallagher, who founded the Croissant Run Club in the UK before moving to Australia and setting up the Sydney CRC community.
If you’re keen to get involved, you can sign up for Unofficial Run Club over here, join the joggers at Croissant Run Club here or learn more about Pace Yourself Run Club’s Pastry Yourself sojourns to Double Bay’s Baker Bleu over here.