At 11 a.m. every Sunday in Sewell Park, an inclusive group of runners can be seen crossing over Sewell Park Bridge beginning their weekly club activity.
The new Bikini Hill Run Club hosts a two-mile run each Sunday, providing locals with more than a space to run. It is a community where people can make friends to enjoy running with.
“We wanted to build a community out here in San Marcos,” Zane Sutten, a Bikini Hill Run Club co-founder, said. “There’s a lot of community around us but there’s nothing like this, you can’t really get active with the community.”
Inspired by other run clubs in surrounding areas, Bikini Hill Run Club’s co-founders Sutten, Levi Jamail and Randall Martinez hosted their first run on June 16. Since its introduction, the club gained 750 followers on Instagram and had up to 30 runners come out to join them.
“We want to make something really consistent that people could rely on happening every single week, so that’s why going forward it’s for sure 11 a.m. on Sundays — we’ll be here,” Jamail said. “We’ll do the run and then come and hang out and jump in the river afterward.”
Every week, new faces show up to the run club for various reasons. For Zachary Baldwin, a music education junior, he hoped to get back into shape since his last run was in high school. He found the group through Instagram. Baldwin’s goal for his run was to maintain his pace.
“I follow the Raw Dog Run Club up in Austin, and then I saw that [Bikini Hill Run Club] was starting up and I was like, ‘this one is closer, so I’ll probably do this one,'” Baldwin said.
The weekly run goes through Sewell Park, City Park and San Marcos Plaza Park for two miles consisting of San Marcos River scenery. The club offers different pace groups to keep everyone together until the last person finishes.
“We have a ton of different pace groups,” Jamail said. “We kind of stick together for the first bit of the run and then we tell people, ‘Run as fast as you want or as slow as you want’… so it’s really welcome to absolutely anybody.”
After the run, Liquid I.V., water and sometimes snacks are offered. The club stays at Sewell Park to enjoy the river and spend time with one another.
More than running, Bikini Hill Run Club hopes to be a place where people can make friends.
“The main purpose that we started the Run Club is it’s different out here to make friends,” Martinez said. “This is something that you can do that’s hard, you can push yourself, you can challenge yourself and then on top of that, you can make new friends.”
The trio looks forward to seeing more turnout at Bikini Hill Run Club once the fall 2024 semester begins at Texas State. The club has plans to do more than just running, including club hikes, Spikeball and sand volleyball tournaments.
“We really just want to be more of a social club rather than like a running club,” Sutten said. “We’re gonna do [activities] to build that community a little bit more… so if you’re not a runner and you don’t want to come around on a Sunday, there will be a couple more things to come out and try to meet new people at.”
To keep up with Bikini Hill Run Club, follow its Instagram @bikinihillrunclub.
