Running is life's rarest meritocracy, according to the fastest runfluencer we know

They’re meeting up to do it in clubs. They’re raving about “the high”. They’re spending half their salaries on top-end gear, and they’re even videoing themselves doing it and posting it online.

It’s called running, and the young people of this country are going absolutely crazy for it. Sport England data reckons there are 7.1 million runners in England alone right now, which is half a million more than there were the year before and 850,000 more than the year before that.

It also reckons the demographic responsible for more of that growth than any other is Millennials and Gen Z, whose interest in the sport has enabled a whole ancillary ecosystem of running clubs, running-based social events, and, of course, running influencers. Basically, running might be cool now. What’s up with that?

One man we thought might have a pretty decent handle on what’s up with that is one of said runfluencers – the rapid-but-relatable Hugo Fry, who was a cricketer in his youth and cycled through CrossFit, Barry’s, F45 and boxing (“I got hit in the face a lot”) before lockdown restrictions inspired him to just run as far as he could for an hour every day.

That got him pretty quick – like, 3:03 in his first marathon quick – so he kept going, and when he started posting some videos from a training camp in Kenya he’d spent all his annual leave and a chunk of his savings on, he started picking up followers. A year and a half later, he’s sitting on 150,000 loyal Instagram fans and a 14:19 5K, 29:37 10K and 2:17 marathon. Man’s got wheels.

As far as his following goes, Fry reckons a lot of them will have been attracted by the fact that he’s not some professional runner whose whole life has been oriented toward the sport since childhood, who might therefore struggle to convey anything that would be useful to a normal person, but just a bloke who started running over lockdown and got really into it.

He wouldn’t say this himself, but it probably also helps that he’s one of not too many people occupying the niche of being really, really quick while also having a personality. The basic elements of the sport are, on the surface level at least, pretty straightforward and unexciting – get from here to there, ASAP. This is partly why its explosion has taken so many by surprise, and why anyone able to inject a little humour and excitement into proceedings – by editing little GIFs and memes into their videos, but also creating a narrative of and investment into attempts to set a new PB or complete a certain challenge – has found their popularity surging in the way Fry’s has over the last year.

“My front door is that I’ve got some pretty quick times,” he explains. “People might come in because they’re intrigued by that, but then why they stay is that it’s hopefully a couple of minutes of light entertainment for someone who’s had a long day. I guess I hope it's like a comfort watch, and that's what I think my niche is.”

As for the explosion of running more broadly, Fry’s theory is that it’s a response to the enshittification of modern life. “Wage inflation is like, nothing, so it’s really hard to make a good amount of money. Rent’s crazy, getting on the property ladder is really hard, dating is really hard with people using the apps and not finding a connection with anyone… but with running, the amount of work you put in literally determines how well you do. It’s very linear. You run more, you will get faster.” In other words, running provides a rare streak of meritocracy in a completely unmeritocratic world. He could be on to something here.

Running also has a much lower skill-based barrier to entry than something like weightlifting, where not knowing the proper technique can risk serious injury, and it doesn’t require an expensive membership or much in the way of specialist equipment (yes you’ll need some running shoes, but Fry says that until you’re really getting up toward the elite levels of the sport, you can leave the carbon-plated ones that cost a fortune and make do perfectly fine with a relatively cheap pair).

It also provides an opportunity for socialising through the now-ubiquitous running club, in a society that allows people to live increasing amounts of their lives without having to interact with anyone. Ultimately though, Fry thinks the best thing about running is that it’s just a chance to add something positive to your day.

“Fundamentally, why I think running's so powerful,” says Fry, “is that I've never regretted going on a run. For my mental health, it's just given me such structure in my life. Every day, even if I didn't have a good day, if I'd got out in the morning and gone for a run, I knew I'd done something good for that day. It was that one pillar, a good thing happening. Even if I wasn't loving my job at the time, which happened quite a lot. I'm sure we can all relate to that.”