In the age when casual runners have become increasingly fixated on personal bests, major marathon qualifiers and Strava segments, one run club is embracing an inverse approach. Slowpokes Run Club—founded by the quartet of Lucas Siemucha, Neil Pinault-Southam, Marco Valente and Peter Dowhaniuk—emerged in October 2022 as a means of providing Toronto runners with an accessible and healthy social outlet.
“Our main objective was just to get people socializing together outside in a way that didn’t involve late nights or a drinking culture,” explains Dowhaniuk.
“It was really about building a community that everyone would feel genuinely better for joining,” adds Valente, who runs Slowpokes’ Vancouver chapter. “The running group market also felt intimidating for us to enter as non-elite runners, and we thought others might feel the same. We wanted to…
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Canadian Running (Digital) - 1 Issue, January/February 2024