The founder's story

Like most people, my running story started long before I cared about any distance or time. It started on the soccer fields, racing around the neighborhood, and on the school playgrounds — always with friends.

I mostly just played soccer and baseball growing up. But in middle school, my friends were all doing track and field, so naturally I followed along. Soccer was more of a fall activity by then, and baseball was getting less fun the more serious it became. And oddly enough, I remember the exact moment I decided to be a distance runner. A few of the cross country runners had been relentless about getting me to join them, and then the moment came. The coaches were splitting everyone up — "okay, sprinters over here, distance over there" — and I just stopped and stood there. I looked at my friends in the sprinting group, and then I looked at the cross country kids, all watching me eagerly to see if I'd come with them. They wanted me to join so badly that I gave in and ran off with them. They became my new friends fast, because I loved jogging around and getting to know them as we made our way through town.

Throughout middle school and high school, I made some of my closest friends. We spent countless hours and miles together, just talking about anything and everything on our minds. It's still one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends to this day. High school was the most consistent I've ever been with my running.

Right after I graduated, I did what everyone else was doing — I went to college and grabbed a part-time job at a deli. All the friends I'd gotten so close to through running went off to college elsewhere, while I commuted to a local college from home and lived with my parents. I'd be lying if I said I didn't struggle with loneliness. Nothing in my life was truly hard, but I still managed to get myself into a pretty dark place: classes I didn't apply myself in, shifts at the deli, then video games until 4am. Repeat. I'd go for a run by myself after work every now and then, but if I wasn't feeling it, I wouldn't hesitate to skip.

A couple of years went by, and the high school cross country team was starting to grow. They needed help, so they offered to let me be an assistant coach — which turned into such a fun few years. I worked mostly with the guys' side and got really close with them, but I learned a ton about my own running too. I wanted to be the kind of coach who always ran with his team; I'd never make them do something I wouldn't do myself. So because I was running with them, I got to spend those quality hours and miles with new friends all over again. Around the same time, a guy started at the deli who was really into fitness, and he was excited to hear I liked running. We started planning runs and lifting sessions together, and just like that I was building consistency again — and a community around me that supported my goals and made me feel better.

The coaching and college couldn't last forever. I graduated and found a full-time job as a web developer, and I stopped coaching because I no longer had the flexibility in my schedule. I still met up to run with my friend from the deli, but not enough to keep me consistent, since I wasn't doing much on my own. This stretch wasn't all bad — I was learning a ton at my job, picking up technical skills and figuring out how to build things, not just for work but for myself. I was always chasing the next idea that popped into my head. I also met a friend at work who is the definition of consistency, and lucky me, I got him into running. We'd run at lunch, and over that stretch he helped get me back into some of the best shape I'd been in. Another new friend, more countless hours and miles, more happiness.

You start to see the trend here. I fell in and out of love with running over and over, and the thing that kept bringing me back — the thing that made me consistent — was people. Believe it or not, this cycle happened one more time at a newer job, but I won't bore you with basically the same story. I'll just tell you that I met my now-wife, who supports my goals and is into running herself. I stayed in touch with my friends from the deli, the software jobs, and coaching. I have this whole community around me now, and none of it is tied to my current job or anything like that. It's a community I don't have to leave behind anymore. Every morning I wake up and run a couple of miles with my wife, and on weekends I meet up with my friends for a long run. It keeps me consistent, and with them it's effortless.

Every now and then I get a run in by myself, and I tend to reflect. Honestly, I only just noticed this trend in my own life. But it got me thinking: how can I help other people find their community, their consistency, their accountability? I've tried run clubs — once a month isn't frequent enough. I've met some of the coolest people through running, but not by showing up once a month. It was by getting together over and over, because our schedules lined up and we made it happen. That's how it works, and that's how Run Bud was born. My friends and I are always organizing runs, and I have the skills to build an app from my own career and interests. So let me build something that helps me and my friends organize our runs around our own schedules and see when we line up. Then the idea snowballed. What if you could meet new people in your area who have the same schedule and run the same pace? Now that would be awesome. That would be the app I wish I'd had for the past five years.

So that's what Run Bud is. It was never going to be about chasing splits or filling a feed with numbers — it's about the person on the other end of the run, the one counting on you to show up the same way you're counting on them. I spent years relearning the same lesson without realizing it: I run more often when I have someone to run with. If you've ever felt that same pull, the falling in and falling back out of it, I hope Run Bud can be the thing that keeps you lacing up. Because for me the miles were never really the point. The people were. I just want to make it a little easier for you to find yours.