Sixty runners gathered at McNally’s Irish Bar on College Ave. in Oakland this past Tuesday. A saloon might be an unusual place for a fitness group to meet, but not when that group is East Bay Beer Runners.
“If you like running and you like beer, then we’re the group for you,” said organizer and EBBR co-founder Ramon Valle.
A resident of San Leandro, Valle began the group with co-founder Gabriel Abastillas about a year and a half ago. “We were just looking for a way to combine two of our main interests,” said Valle. “We like beer, and we like running.”
Since founding the club, East Bay Beer Runners has attracted a loyal following. “Draft Magazine rated us one of the top beer running clubs to join in 2017,” Valle noted, a fact the meetup page for EBBR reiterates.
Though the group started out in San Leandro, "about 75% of our runs are in Oakland," said Valle. There’s more support for the group in Oakland, he said, as well as more breweries to choose from and more varied terrain.
This week, the group ran a circuit from McNally’s up College Ave. to Broadway, along Pleasant Valley Road to Piedmont Avenue, and then up through Mountain View Cemetery, with turn arounds chalked after about 1.5 and 2.5 miles. The distances change with each run, largely depending on mood and the number of beers consumed beforehand.
Each Tuesday, the group meets around 7pm at a different East Bay bar to follow a course the organizers have set beforehand, starting and ending at the same spot. On the first Tuesday of the month, the meetup is always at the Trappist, at 460 8th Street in Oakland. The remaining Tuesdays and first Saturday of the month are up for grabs.
There are no time limits, no membership dues, and no obligations to drink. “We’re an inclusive bunch,” says Valle. “We never want to turn people away," though he does note, participants must be at least 21.
“We’re pretty nice people,” said organizer John Lee. Interactions with local bars have been largely positive; the group calls ahead of time to check before posting each week’s route to social media. “We’ve always been asked to come back,” said Lee.
To date, EBBR has relied entirely on word of mouth to grow the organization.
“We’re good at establishing positive-feedback loops,” Lee said. Now that EBBR has a large, active membership, it's on the radar of other organizations and merchants; Valle and Lee raffled off a tag for the San Francisco marathon, as well as $100 worth of donated gift cards to a local running store.
At 7pm, the group posed for a quick photo before headed out on the road. Some members ran the shorter course, some the longer, and some decided to turn around when they felt they had enough. At Mountain View cemetery, one man turned at the first big hill to head back towards McNally’s, waving as he went.
“See you in a couple beers,” he said.
To join East Bay Beer Runners, register via its Meetup page and follow the group on Facebook.
