It’s 19:30 on a Monday evening in November. It’s grey and it’s cold. About 60 people are limbering up gathered on Place Jourdan and they are about to run a 5k. They are Bxl Run Crew.
Despite the chill, everyone is in a good mood. “I just moved to Brussels today,” says Laura, 30, who arrived from Berlin that afternoon for a three-month secondment with her company. “Everyone is so welcoming. You would think my priority is to unpack my boxes - no! It’s to meet people and run. It feels easy to talk to people here, and the whole setup is really wholesome.”
Wholesome is certainly the right word. Just before the run begins, one of the crew’s 14 volunteer club captains, Ruben, methodically gives every single person in the group a fistbump.
New arrival Laura heard of Bxl Run Crew through her own running group back home in Berlin – a testament to the crew’s devoted and ever-growing following. Everyone involved in the club is at odds to describe it as a “crew,” distinguishing itself from a traditional running club by focusing on community and friendship rather than speed or distance.
Founded in 2018 by friends Camille Pollie and Tim Verheyden, running as a collaborative act is one of the foundations of the crew. “I started the run crew with Tim because we just wanted to run with nice people,” says Pollie. “Running can be quite solitary, but it’s so nice if it’s a place for socialising.”
“It was an opportunity to connect with people that share the same passion as you but who you wouldn’t normally meet in your workplace or local cafe.”
Credit: BXL Run Crew
Although neither Pollie nor Verheyden are originally from Brussels, they have worked in the city for a combined total of 35 years. For Verheyden, an avid runner, a run crew was something that was missing in the city. “I remember I was sitting on a plane to Stockholm, I was reading Runner's World. I saw this story about running crews all over the world. I knew I wanted to start it, but I didn’t want to do it alone.”
The two friends went for a run to brainstorm, and from there, the idea took off. From the crew’s first run in 2018 to today, the crew has grown exponentially. Some members have been running with the crew since the start, while others flit in and out. A large spectrum of the running community, from casual to consumed, can be found in the crew.
Easy come, easy go
Some members only come once a month, while another is training for a 50k trail run next year. Some have dozens of marathons under their belt.
Ambre, a rare Brussels native, joined this summer, hoping to run a 10k. “I found the crew on Instagram,” she says. “I first came here alone, and then I made some friends. I then encouraged other friends from outside the crew to come and run with me too. It's really nice. It's a great way to motivate myself.”
Elise, 25, a physiotherapist from France, has lived in Brussels for five years and joined the crew this summer, alongside Ambre, looking for motivation to run. In a city like Brussels, characterised by its transient expat community and the work-dominated "EU Bubble", the crew is a way of fostering connections with people outside of your workspace, members say.
Smiles all round. Credit: BXL Run Crew
Roxanne, 32, who is from France and working in the city as an EU-accredited interpreter, says that the crew is her main way of connecting with people outside of work. “I don't like the expression "bubble", but it is true that as an interpreter you often only meet other interpreters through work. At the crew, you get to meet other expats but you also get to meet Belgians – and not only French-speaking Belgians. It's a breath of fresh air.”
The setup of the crew is designed to make socialising easy and accessible. Runs are free to join and runners often grab a drink together afterwards.
But for many – especially women – the group also provides safety in numbers, especially in the winter. “If you have a normal job, you can only run in the evenings,” says Rosa, 30, from London. “But in winter it's dark and women don’t always feel safe while running. So a group like this is really important.”
Forward momentum
Beyond organising each run, co-captain Ruben has been working on plans for the future. One of those – attempting to bring worldwide running phenomenon Parkrun to Brussels – has hit a roadblock; for now.
Parkrun is now present across six continents but is not yet in Belgium. “I reached out several times but they weren’t interested,” says Ruben. A spokesperson for Parkrun told The Brussels Times: "Historically we’ve felt that we haven’t had the resources to start in lots of places at once and still ensure the quality of our events, and therefore we’ve had to reluctantly say ‘not yet’ to the enquiries that we’ve received from Belgium over the years.”
However, the Parkrun spokesperson confirmed that it hopes to double in size in the next five years. That could include expanding to mainland Europe, including Belgium. “We’ll be actively developing these plans for mainland Europe over the coming months and years,” they said.
The crew’s answer to Parkrun – in addition to its weekly 5k and 10k runs, a bi-monthly core session entitled “Bootyful Monday” in affiliation with gym training company F45 – is Park’cours, a 5k on the last Sunday of every month, where anyone, no matter their pace, can join. It’s different to the crew’s weekly 5k, which is at a set pace of 9 to 10km per hour. At Park’cours, you’ll find young children, millennials, and older participants all running at their own pace. Some even follow along on bicycles.
Making a scene: In October, ten running clubs from around Belgium convened in Brussels. Credit: BXL Run Crew
Although competition is not part of the crew’s core values, it does take part in the “January Battle” against other running crews and clubs across Europe. Individual members of crews sign up, and the goal is to run as many kilometres as possible as a collective. In January 2023, Bxl Run Crew members ran a collective total of 2367km across the month.
The crew has developed significantly since its inception but its main aim is to continue bringing people together, despite the cold and the rain. “We are doing something positive for people, no matter who you are or where you're from, all bodies, all sexes, all ages, it's bringing people together in a positive spirit,” says co-founder Verheyden.
In the spirit of that positivity, Bxl Run Crew members are going to keep braving the cold and the rain in exchange for fistbumps, camaraderie and kilometres.
For more information about the events, visit the Bxl Run Crew website or Instagram page.
