Declan O'Sullivan, founder of TA Fitness Run Club, after a weekly social run along Brighton seafront, finishing with a drink overlooking Brighton Palace Pier.
A new social run club has started up in Brighton with a simple idea behind it. Get people away from their screens, out into the fresh air, and into a pub for a well earned pint and a proper conversation.
It is the work of Declan O'Sullivan, a fitness coach who recently relocated to the city and runs TA Fitness. The promise is refreshingly honest. This is not about getting faster or fitter. It is about showing up, moving your body, and having something to look forward to at the end of the week.
Founder Declan O'Sullivan on why the run club was never really about the running. Video: TA Fitness
The format is deliberately low key. The group sets off at a talking pace, covers no more than five kilometres, and finishes the route at one of Brighton's many pubs. There is no pressure on times, no drills, and nobody left behind.
It is aimed squarely at people who spend all day behind a desk working online, the kind of work that can quietly get lonely, and who just want a good excuse to get outside and be around other people. Getting better at running is genuinely not the point.
Week one of the run club, with the Green Dragon setting an early benchmark in the hunt for Brighton's best Guinness. Video: TA Fitness
The main mission. To build a community in a city full of people who work remotely, because the online world can get lonely. Every week is a chance to swap the screen for real faces and real conversation.
The side mission. To track down the best pint of Guinness in Brighton, one finishing pub at a time. Each week's spot gets reviewed along the way, so the search doubles as a slow tour of the city's pubs.
Finding the best pint of Guinness in Brighton is the club's unofficial second mission, with each week's pub reviewed along the way. Credit: TA Fitness
Right now it is often just Declan showing up each week, which, as he happily admits, is exactly how these things start. That makes it the perfect moment to get in at the ground floor and help shape it. No experience needed, no pace to keep up with, just turn up.
Anyone who fancies a gentle run and a pint with some new faces can follow along and find the next run over on Declan's page, where he shares each week's route and pub.
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