New York’s dating clubs have become an oversaturated dating market – NBC New York

On a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in New York City’s Washington Square Park, a sea of ​​slicked-back buns and black Lululemon workout clothes performed a mating ritual. At this singles club, about 1,000 New Yorkers each week seek an antidote to the ills of Tinder and Hinge.

Participants said they were fed up with dating apps and were willing to sweat to find an alternative.

But runners in the Lunge Run Club, which has grown since its inception in May, say the now-massive group can be rife with some of the same drama: People ghost each other, lie about their relationship status and have to watch the people they dated last week pass them by the next week.

“You have to be willing to see someone you’ve dated and talk to someone else,” said Rachael Lansing, leader of the Lunge Run Club, which meets weekly in Washington Square Park.

Just a few months ago, the club had about 20 people, mostly focused on sports. A few viral videos later, love-starved New Yorkers started flocking in droves.

“I want to find my soulmate in New York,” said Fernanda Puentes, 29, who works as a nanny. “Dating apps are very popular these days; I’m trying to meet someone organically. I like running, I like playing sports, so why not?”

With groups now numbering hundreds of runners per session, some participants trying to use in-person, interest-based activities to find that meaningful connection said the task can be as difficult as swiping.

At the Lunge Run on the Wednesday before Labor Day weekend, New Yorkers from all walks of life—consultants, waiters, nannies, financial workers, and doctors—all mingled enthusiastically in hopes of finding love in the next three miles.

The summer of singles club boom is winding down as “cuffing” season, when singles seek to hook up for the winter, quickly approaches. NBC News hit the pavement and spoke with more than a dozen participants. Some said they were obsessed with the concept, but others said months of chasing love had yielded little more than a few phone numbers.

“It’s easy to get lost,” said Barbara Cheng, a 29-year-old consultant. “I think it’s best for people who are very, very outgoing.”

Are Running Clubs Worth It?

Since early summer, New York City running clubs like Lunge have become the new playground for lifestyle influencers on TikTok. The West Side Highway, a popular running destination, is now a vast pool for young urban professionals looking for athletic and attractive partners.

“I’m running in running clubs until I find my wife,” one TikToker captioned a video.

Lunge took advantage of the city’s hunger for real-life encounters to create a running group specifically geared toward meeting people. It’s a three-mile run (or a walk of just over a mile) that ends at a West Village bar. Participation is often so large that Lunge has to plan a bar next door.

Running clubs have a long history, and runners have always tended to date each other, a relationship expert said. Groups like the Prospect Park Track Club have been active since the 1970s. The New York Road Runners, organizers of the New York City Marathon, started as a 40-person running club in the 1950s.

“Having a shared common goal to work toward is the main reason it works so well,” said Stevie Bowen, dating coach and columnist and founder of “City of Dating.” “There’s a certain camaraderie in that.”

New dating clubs have been popping up all over town in recent years, but they’ve gotten a lot of attention on social media this summer. As people grow weary of basic dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, singles dating in general has grown in popularity, Bowen said.

The Lunge Run Club has combined the two concepts in its weekly runs and after-drinks.

The association was created by the creators of the fitness-based dating app Lunge. Lunge began its Wednesday night runs in May with an original cohort of about 30 runners. That number has since grown to about 1,000 runners per week.

“It’s basically doubled week over week,” Lansing said.

Singles are instructed to wear black and clothing in the colors of their relationship, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone wearing anything other than black in the vast crowd of singles that invades Greenwich Village each week.

Annie Jorgensen, a 28-year-old content creator, said that during her first week there in May, the group of about 30 runners formed a circle and introduced themselves to each other. Now, as the number of participants grows into the four digits each week, organizers stand on benches with a megaphone and ask runners and “fit walkers” to divide into pace groups.

“At the happy hour afterward, I remember talking to every single person there,” she said. “I missed a week, and when I came back, there were over 100 people there.”

Runners have the opportunity to meet before, during and after the race. Shy introductions are interrupted by heavy breathing and sneakers slapping the pavement. If the love of your life has a slower mile time than you, you may never find them.

The large number of runners means that even if someone catches your eye one week, you won’t necessarily be able to find them in the crowd the next week, Cheng said.

“You don’t see the same people every time, so if you don’t click and set a date right away, you don’t really get to connect after the race,” she said.

Riders also said the club was still experiencing some of the same issues with the apps.

“Sometimes someone asks for your number, you give it to them, and then you never hear from them again,” said Ashley Korn, 29, who works in finance.

“I’ve heard that some people wear the wrong colors even if they’re in a relationship,” said model Sylvia Wadolowski, 23, who was walking alongside him. “You kind of have to do your own research.”

But it’s something the club’s founders have taken into account. Each week, Lansing posts a story on Lunge’s Instagram asking runners to share stories from the previous week.

“There’s always going to be a few people who let themselves go or act like assholes, but I think we have a lot less of that in this running club,” she said. “It’s almost like a mutual understanding that everyone is dating to try to find the right person for them.”

Zion Morrow, 26, stopped at Lunge on Wednesday on his way to another area running club.

“This one is definitely oversaturated,” he said. “But it’s a very welcome trend. We’ll see more and more of it. The one I’m in, it’s a smaller group of people, it’s definitely a more intimate setting. I see the same people every week.”

He said the club he attends each week is made up of a smaller group led by Black and brown runners, and he has been able to form meaningful connections there. When asked for the name of the club, he declined to share.

“I have to be the custodian,” he said. With Washington Square Park bustling with people, cameras and influencers as a backdrop, his request seemed reasonable.

People want to meet “real” people

Jorgensen pointed out that it takes five minutes on a first date to figure out whether or not you’re interested in dating someone.

“Meeting people in person, you can immediately feel the vibe,” she said.

The number of people willing to pay for apps like Tinder declined in 2024, according to data from dating app giant Match Group, which owns both Tinder and Hinge.

Paywalls prevent you from filtering most of the things you want, young people say, and racism and sexism are rampant. “IRL” dating makes things more authentic from the start, some users say.

“They won’t be catfish because you’ll meet them in person,” Wadolowski said.

Match Group representatives said they are working to recover and that some of their dating apps are performing well. Hinge downloads, for example, increased 14% in the second quarter of 2024.

“We believe the doomsday scenarios around dating apps are grossly overblown and you can start to see that in our results this quarter… dating apps are still the best way for people to meet and we intend to continue to capitalize on that opportunity,” Match Group CEO Bernard Kim said during its Q2 2024 earnings call.

Singles want in-person romance more than ever, Bowen said.

“We’re so much in a technology mindset that people are like, ‘OK, how do I interact in person?’ ‘How do I behave?’” she said. “I think there’s a lot of social anxiety in that, but by going to these running clubs and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, you’re really exercising that social muscle.”

Ultimately, she says, exercise is good for both your body and your social connection. All of the women surveyed mentioned that while they didn’t meet a romantic partner through running clubs, they did make a solid group of new girlfriends. And they’re pretty sure they’d never ignore them.

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