YO RUNNING CLUB

Text: Lina Åsberg / Photo: Dennis Wernersson

Running. Is there any more accessible form of exercise? Just put on your shoes and get out there, it's as simple as that. But what do you do when you feel you’re in a rut, running the same old tracks, or want new views and bigger challenges? What about when you don't want to sacrifice time with your friends because you have to train? Lina Åsberg spoke to Henrik, Rasmus and Tommy from Yo Running Club.

YO Running Club. The name, which means Your Own Running Club, hints at what the group is all about: running joy, friendship and adventure. The club was started by musician Daniel Adams Ray and photographer Fredrik Wannerstedt, two friends who wanted to combine art with running, photography with sweaty workouts, tough challenges with hanging out with friends, and coffee and croissants at their favourite café at Sankt Eriksplan. – Daniel and Fredrik started this as an alternative to traditional athletics clubs. Those have a certain aesthetic, a lot of norms about how things should be. Daniel and Fredrik are two very creative people and wanted to explore how they could combine their passion for running with art and photography, says Tommy. There wasn’t much room for that in existing clubs, so they did their own thing. What they started was Yo Running Club, a club made up of friends who meet every Tuesday night and Saturday morning to tackle the city streets with a camera in hand and a wealth of ideas to challenge and rethink their running. The club has about twenty members, most of whom are old friends who met in various training situations and competitions, including the Swedish swimrun competition 'Ö till Ö'. Henrik Kindgren is among those who have been at the club the longest. – Yes, Daniel and I competed together in 2013 or 2014, I think. We gave it a try – and won! A really, really big competition, he says, laughing. – Afterwards, in the paper, the headline was: ”Daniel Adams Ray won an extreme sports competition”. – Daniel Adams Ray and a friend, adds Rasmus, also laughing. Ouch! – Well, no, it wasn't such a big deal, it was a competition called Beach to Beach.

“We go to the far end of a line and run along it, as far as we can. If someone can't manage it, they can just take the train back”

YO's tips for starting a running club.

"Just do it”, say the members of YO who think people waste time looking for clubs. All you need is a bunch of friends you like to run with, and regular routines. It also helps to be a slightly larger group, so there are always some people who run even if not everyone can. The group run every Tuesday and Saturday, the same time, same place. They get motivation from the treat afterwards – a croissant and coffee, for example.

Concrete jungle book meets farmhouse

The soul and heart are the very essence of the challenge. Yo isn't a club for those who want to run the same old track morning and night – they want to challenge themselves and discover new surroundings while running. Perhaps it's their passion for photography that laid the foundation for this inexhaustible desire for new views. Indeed, the culture in the club is a bit reminiscent of the idea of urban exploration. One challenge that gained some media attention was their metro (underground railway) run. The concept is simple: – We find the end of the railway lines and run a new route out to them. When we’ve completed all the final stations, we're done, Tommy says.

“It's the best way to get – Yes, it's not such an advanced concept really, Rasmus says. out, to do it with friends Some of their favourite views and have fun socialising are in Akalla and Hjulsta. – It's truly amazing how the afterwards.” concrete connects to Järvafältet's rural scenes, says Rasmus. It almost feels like being out in the country, with large fields and farms. In the centre, on the other hand, it's a totally different feeling. Large concrete blocks, million-home housing estates. There are fantastic pictures to be taken in such concretedominated environments. – Another gem was the abandoned Kymlinge metro station in Sundbyberg, Tommy adds. Stockholm is a city of contrasts: concrete and green idylls, housing estates and medieval cobblestone alleys. Discovering the city at dawn, when it hasn't yet woken up is fantastic, according to the members of the club.

YO's tips to take your running up a notch

Take advantage of your city’s public transport

Find a means of transport that can take you to new places in your town and discover new running routes from there. If you want to run a long way, you can follow the public transport route back and hop on the bus, train or underground home again if your legs get tired.

Run all streets or run in patterns

Find a map of your town and then run every single street on it. Use a GPS watch to log where you’ve run and see where you haven't yet been. Or draw a pattern and try to make a word or shape across the city streets.

Petrol station to petrol station or viewpoint running

Run between petrol stations in the countryside and stock up on energy at each station, or just stop and admire the view. Inform a friend who lives somewhere along the way if you're running far so they can pick you up in their car if you get too tired.

Get inspiration from other running clubs

YO recommends Copenhagen-based Norrebro Running and Dutch club Patta as places to find inspiration for new running challenges. Or why not turn to YO itself? You'll find them on Instagram under the name yorunningclub, where they upload inspiring photos from their runs and adventures.

When YO ran out of final stations, they started what they call 'safari runs', and used commuter train lines instead. – We have runners of many different levels, says Tommy, and it's obviously important that people can keep up, but also that everyone can participate. So we go to the far end of the commuter train lines and then run back along the line, as far as we can. If someone can't manage it, they can just take the train back. A beautiful route they recommend from the safari runs is the trail from Kallhäll towards the city, where you can run along the water and take in the sea, bridges and castles.

All the city's streets

2019 was a year for a new challenge. YO's members wanted to run not only for the group but for a higher purpose, and the result was a challenge in support of Musikhjälpen. The running club took on all of Stockholm's inner city streets in a mad frenzy, and anyone who wanted to could participate – provided they donated to the appeal. In total they raised 150,000 SEK, not just through running, but also by selling training programs and other products on Tradera. There was one thing I thought about before I met YO: how did they keep track? How did they know how many, and which, streets they had left? – At first we started to set up a route, a kind of schedule, but it became far too cumbersome and time consuming, says Rasmus. So we started using our GPS watches to log where we had run instead, and at the end of the day we put the routes that the watch recorded onto a map to see what we had left.

Did you manage to run all the streets?

– Yes, almost, says Rasmus. There were some we missed around Vasastan. But nearly all the streets. It took 17 hours in total. We ran around two hours per day in one week. I was probably the only one who ran every day, the others joined in when they could.

– It was so much fun. We met so many people we’d never met before. People who saw what we were doing through Instagram, and posted about it. Friends of friends. My dad joined for a bit, he ran a kilometre and then dropped out, says Rasmus. When asked if they got a different picture of their city after the challenge, they all answer 'yes' in unison. – There’s so much we didn't know about Stockholm, so much we hadn't seen. The coolest place is probably Gamla stan. You wouldn't believe it, but there are many hidden gems, you always get the old classics – Västerlånggatan, Svartmannagatan. When we ran for Musikhjälpen we got to see so many small alleys, hidden streets and places we had never seen before, it was fantastic, says Rasmus. – You get to rediscover how beautiful Stockholm is, Henrik adds. For occasional runs, they suggest island jumping in Stockholm's inner city – to take in all the streets in the Old Town, Kastellholmen, Riddarholmen and beyond.

YO's tips for running challenges

It's clear that this is a group that loves to run in new and unexpected ways. For all of Stockholm's glorious beauty, only one in ten Swedes lives there. Do they have any advice for others who want to add a challenge to their running – in the countryside as well as in the city? Try tram and bus running, following the same method as the underground metro running. But how do you do it in the countryside? Can you run far in unknown territory, if you don't have a commuter train to jump on? – I'm from the countryside, says Tommy, who was born and raised outside Jönköping. When going on a new long run, somewhere I'd never been before, I made sure to call a friend who had a house somewhere far along the road and ask if they could drive me home. It's not a big loss for them, if a distance takes an hour for me, it might take a quarter of an hour by car. And if I didn't have the strength to run the whole way, I just had to call and be picked up along the way. – Another good challenge is running from petrol station to petrol station, he adds. It's just how it sounds. You run a stretch where you know there are petrol stations, and you stop at each station and have a coffee. It's also a good way to get your stomach used to handling the food and energy intake required for longer runs, if you’re interested in ultra-running. – I usually combine it with a little family time, says Rasmus. I ask my wife to drive with the kids to a beach, and then I run there. Then I don't have to worry about being able to get home, as the car is right there. I can take a dip and hang out with my family afterwards. Another cool thing to try, which works for both urban and rural running, is ’viewpoint running’. As usual, the name is self-explanatory: you run to a viewpoint, take a break and admire the views, and then run on to the next one. It's an excellent way to satisfy your need for eye candy while getting some exercise. When asked if they have any new challenges on the horizon, they mention that they're excited about making patterns with their runs. – We have tried a little: round circles of eight in the city and a few other things, says Tommy. But it would be cool to do more advanced stuff, like run a word or a sentence. The whole gang joins in, in agreement. – After all, running is also something that requires discipline: it's hard to run. It can be boring and requires perseverance, Tommy continues. – A lot of our races are centred around coffee, Rasmus adds, laughing. It sounds funny but I'm actually not joking. It's the best way to get out, to do it with friends and have fun socialising afterwards. We always go to the same cafe. So if you want to find YO, you just have to look for their favourite hang-out spot, somewhere in Vasastan.

Contributors

Rasmus Regnstrand, Tommy Guldstrand and Henrik Kindgren: three YO friends who, in addition to running, train in several other disciplines, including cycling and swimrun. Follow them on Instagram: @yorunningclub.