It’s Monday evening. Across Munich, runners tie their laces and head into the dusk for an interval training session. They’re showing up to do exactly what the event invite promises: get faster, grow stronger, and (perhaps most importantly) connect with the crew.
Driven by two defining lifestyle trends – fitness, and the search for real-world connection – running groups are redefining urban sport.
Munich Running Society is the perfect demonstration of this shift. Backed by PUMA since 2024, the group trains, socialises, travels, and competes together. Fresh from the PUMA418 Race (418km of relay from PUMA HQ in Herzogenaurach to Berlin’s NITRO™ Lab) plus the Berlin Marathon, we chat with co-founders Magnus and Florian about what happens when movement meets community.
Munich Running Society is the perfect demonstration of this shift. Backed by PUMA since 2024, the group trains, socialises, travels, and competes together. Fresh from the PUMA418 Race (418km of relay from PUMA HQ in Herzogenaurach to Berlin’s NITRO™ Lab) plus the Berlin Marathon, we chat with co-founders Magnus and Florian about what happens when movement meets community.
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PUMA Run Your City by DAIZE
PUMA Run Your City by DAIZE
A cultural shift
“We started as a running crew in 2016 and turned into something people build their week around,” explains Magnus. “People show up for the run and stay for the group: friendships, relationships, even jobs have come out of standing next to the same person on a cold Monday evening enough times.”It’s this regularity – routine, even – that drives any club. But the staying power of a community runs on connection. The social side.
“Once the group chats filled up with plans that had nothing to do with running, we knew it had become something else.”
Co-founders Magnus and Florian no doubt know that their members could exercise elsewhere in the city. This modern run club, however, has become a type of “third space”: a social environment away from home or work to build friendships.
Portait by Maria Boger
A run club works when the training is good. A community works when people miss each other on the days there isn’t one.”
Magnus Bohlmann, Co-founder of Munich Running Society
Magnus Bohlmann, Co-founder of Munich Running Society
Shared space, personal pace
Elite athletes might seem to operate in a league of their own, but they benefit from a boost like anyone else. For Florian Gast, a HYROX Elite athlete and former world record holder, the pull of a group comes down to accountability.“Solo training gets you fit. It doesn’t get you out the door on the days you don’t want to be there. The group does that for you, and it holds you to a standard you wouldn’t hold yourself to alone.”
Simon Gehr / i.A. Incylence
Crucially, a community-first atmosphere doesn’t have to mean compromising on athletic performance. Munich Running Society has got the balance right: share energy, while personalising pace.
“Everyone runs their own race inside the same session,” says Florian. “You put people at different levels on the same track at the same time, give everyone a target that’s actually theirs, and the group energy does the rest.”
“Everyone runs their own race inside the same session,” says Florian. “You put people at different levels on the same track at the same time, give everyone a target that’s actually theirs, and the group energy does the rest.”
Inside the crew
Years of brand support from PUMA is a double vote of confidence: in the level of the sport on show, and the value of the culture that every single member has contributed to.
PUMA x top4running x Amanal
“It’s a strong partnership, not just a logo on a jersey, and the events we’ve built together prove that. It gives the crew something to be proud of, and tells them this isn’t a side project, it’s a real team,” says Magnus.
That shared pride drove the club’s efforts at the PUMA418 Race – a 418km relay from the PUMA HQ in Herzogenaurach to the NITRO™ Lab in Berlin, part of PUMA’s build-up to the Berlin Marathon.
“None of us could cover that distance alone,” confirms Magnus. “That’s exactly the point of it.”
That shared pride drove the club’s efforts at the PUMA418 Race – a 418km relay from the PUMA HQ in Herzogenaurach to the NITRO™ Lab in Berlin, part of PUMA’s build-up to the Berlin Marathon.
“None of us could cover that distance alone,” confirms Magnus. “That’s exactly the point of it.”
Put a team on the road and you find out what none of you could do solo. That’s basically what Running Society has been proving since day one.”
Magnus Bohlmann, Co-founder of Munich Running Society
Magnus Bohlmann, Co-founder of Munich Running Society
The result? Munich Running Society ran through the night to place first. Covering, in the end, 438 kilometres in an astounding 26 hours and 56 minutes.
But the club wasn’t done for the weekend. At the Berlin Marathon, as part of PUMA PROJECT3, Florian ran a new personal best of two hours and 39 minutes. Multiple other members also hit huge PBs – testament to the power of the run club.
But the club wasn’t done for the weekend. At the Berlin Marathon, as part of PUMA PROJECT3, Florian ran a new personal best of two hours and 39 minutes. Multiple other members also hit huge PBs – testament to the power of the run club.
A building momentum
Young adults in particular are actively seeking socialising alternatives. We’ve collectively realised that hours on media apps, an alcohol-heavy nightlife, and swiping on dating apps is no longer a fulfilling combination for a social life. Running can be accessible and cheap, and clubs have expanded from fitness trend to social institution.
PUMA Project 3 by DAIZE
PUMA Project 3 by DAIZE
PUMA x top4running x Amanal
For Munich Running Society, scaling up means staying true to what they’ve always been.
“Growth without losing the thing that made it work in the first place, which is performance, authenticity, and staying close to the runners,” Magnus notes on what lies ahead for the club. “That’s what’s next: more of that, at a bigger scale.”
“Growth without losing the thing that made it work in the first place, which is performance, authenticity, and staying close to the runners,” Magnus notes on what lies ahead for the club. “That’s what’s next: more of that, at a bigger scale.”
Showing up, starting out
Florian offers a pragmatic perspective to anyone hoping to step into the scene.“Show up more than once before you decide it’s not for you,” he advises. “The first session might feel a bit awkward.” In a world built on low-friction, sedentary hobbies, a run club will feel like a comfort zone stretch.
And for those thinking of starting their own group?
Portait by Maria Boger
“Don’t build it around the training plan. Build it around the people who’ll drag their friends along.”
Florian Gast, elite HYROX athlete and co-founder of Munich Running Society
Florian Gast, elite HYROX athlete and co-founder of Munich Running Society
Ultimately, the global surge of crews like Munich Running Society proves that the desire for authentic human connection isn’t going anywhere. We’re swapping screens for sneakers and solitary workouts for shared miles, and feeling the belonging as well as the burn.
Key Visual: Simon Gehr / i.A. Incylence
