Jack Quinn's Running Club more popular than ever

In a town that regularly ranks as one of the fittest cities in the nation, where one of the most popular illegal activities is trespassing to climb the 2,700 steep steps of the Manitou Incline, you might expect a running club to be pretty popular.

But not this popular.

Jack Quinn's Running Club, a free weekly 5-kilometer group run that starts and ends at the eponymous downtown bar, now boasts 4,773 members. They run yearround in 95-degree sun and 19-degree darkness. And the crowds keep getting bigger.

Tuesday, which was the second anniversary, a record 639 showed up, including 120 who had never been before. Joggers of every description converged on the downtown block: Colorado College students in ironic retro sweatbands, moms from the 'burbs meeting friends from church, serious racers in flashy running outfits, guys with bulging biceps and weathered gray Army T-shirts, even tubby, uncertain newcomers. They formed an amoeba of Lycra, jogging strollers and tangled dog leashes that took over the sidewalk in front of the bar and spilled out into Tejon Street.

"It's amazing," club president Karen Evers said. "I don't think anyone could have anticipated it."

The club started when a young engineer named Ryan Shininger moved to town. He had run with a club in Florida that met once a week at an Irish bar and wanted to start something similar here. The concept is simple. People who run the 5K get a free group run, free pasta and salad and discount beers. The bar, in turn, gets hundreds of thirsty customers on a slow weeknight and lots of exposure.

"That's the cool part. The club brings in lots of people from outside downtown," said Quinn's business manager Tara Hart. "They see what's here and they often come back."

The runners also get something else: a relaxed, somewhat productive social hour.

"People in Colorado Springs want to be healthy by exercising, but they don't want to do it alone. They want to drink beer on a weeknight, but they don't want to do it alone. The running club has filled this void," said Shininger, who now lives in Boulder.

Word of the club spread like a virus, like a funny YouTube link, as runners roped in friends and coworkers.

It didn't take log for Shininger to realize the club had taken on a life of its own.

"It was very apparent after just a few months when I tried to cancel a run due to a snowstorm. People still showed up and ran in the unfavorable weather, despite having no leader, no free food and no beer specials."

Another draw must be the run itself, which follows Monument Creek and doubles back through the leafy Colorado College campus. Traffic is light. There are few road crossings, although sometimes the sidewalks are so packed with runners that people run into parking meters.

Jack Quinn's has proved so popular that it's spawned copycats in Denver and Boulder, though neither has caught on with the same intensity. The Denver version is less than half the size.

What does it say that a smaller, squarer city to the south can bring out more than double the runners?

"I just think it says we like to be in good shape, and we like to have a good time," said Kerma Boyum Martin, a personal trainer who has been running with Jack Quinn's for just over a year.

There are almost as many definitions of "a good time" in the club as there are runners. Some members like Boyum Martin rarely go in for a beer while others down a few pints before the run. Some are serious runners looking for a speed workout while others get a workout just walking. Some come to meet old friends, others have met someone new at the club and fallen in love.

"We haven't had anyone get married through Jack Quinn's yet," Evers said, "but it's only a matter of time."

Some show up for one reason and stay for another.

Club regular Tim Barry was 25 pounds heavier and not really a runner when he saw a story about the club in The Gazette and thought he would check out it out 18 months ago.

"I started by walking. But then I got faster," he said. Then other club members talked him into running the Pikes Peak Ascent, then the Boston Marathon. And now, he said "I'm addicted."

He's not the only one. The run goes on in rain, sleet or snow. During winter's dark of night, runners don headlamps and bob down the street like a file of fireflies.

When the weather is warm, the crowds often overwhelm the bar's stuffy upstairs and splinter groups spill out to surrounding restaurants. Many have started courting runners with discounts. Some have even tried to start clubs in other parts of the city, but none have really caught on. Some longtime members say that, as Yogi Berra once wryly observed, "Nobody goes there no more, it's too crowded." But there are plenty of new runners to fill their spots.

Beth Kosley, director of the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs, said the flourishing gathering is a key part of a thriving downtown.

"I think it's awesome," Kosley said. "Part of the plan for downtown was to embrace the quirky and spontaneous. This is part of that."

Occasionally, the crowds get so big they block the entrances of neighboring restaurants, and unwitting pedestrians have been engulfed by the running hordes, but Kosley said she has heard no complaints.

That's good, because Tuesday could be another record night.

JOIN THE CLUB

5K run followed by free food and $2.50 pints 6 p.m. Tuesdays, 21 S. Tejon St. www.jackquinnsrunners.com