JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It is called the Jacksonville Run Club — but if you ask one of its founders, they will quickly make it clear that “it is more than a run club.”
“It’s a community. It’s a family. And it’s a safe space for a lot of people that are out there,” Jerome Jordan, one of the club’s founders, said.
Since June 2024, Jordan, Jaylen Fowler and Rique Bentley — all born and raised in Jacksonville — have been bringing the community together every Saturday morning, and recently Tuesday evenings, at Friendship Fountain to run different routes around downtown.
Press play in the video above to get an inside look at the Jacksonville Run Club
While they were all involved in sports during high school and college, the founders said the idea to start a run club did not originate from a love of running but from a desire to “start something great” for the Jacksonville community.
“Just me being a Gen-Z kid, just being on social media, I saw a lot of things about how other major cities have run clubs,” Fowler said.
It didn’t take months of strategic planning to get things (or in this case, people) running. According to Jordan, it all started with one Instagram post.
“The first week of June, we made a post one late morning, well, early morning at 3 o’clock. I’m on Instagram, put ‘Jacksonville Run Club.’ It was not taken at all. We made a post, we collaborated on it and it did numbers,” Jordan said. “And then, from there, literally our first run and so on. It has just been growing.”
Now, the Jacksonville Run Club is considered one of the fastest-growing clubs in Duval County.
“We are so blessed to just be in this position, to just be able to help our city and to just bring this positive energy to the city. Again, we know Jacksonville gets a bad rap for a lot of things, but Jacksonville Run Club is literally a safe space,” Fowler said.
That growth has led Jordan, Fowler and Bentley to some one-of-a-kind opportunities, including a recent partnership with Academy Sports + Outdoors.
“No matter how big this club gets, no matter how global it gets, no matter you know what partnerships and deals may come from it, the mission is always the mission. And that’s just to surround like-minded individuals together, bring people together and just motivate them to just push for their goals,” Fowler said.
That mission has resonated with dozens of runners, who have been getting up bright and early every Saturday to attend the club — no matter the weather.
Jada Cummings is among the runners who don’t miss a Saturday.
“I‘ve been into fitness, not running or cardio, not my favorite, but I enjoy coming out here. The run club is cool. Meet amazing people, and it just took me out of my shell because I’m more of an introvert,” Cummings said.
Charnae Davis, Fowler’s older sister, also said she had never considered herself a runner. But since joining the club, that has changed.
“I love it. It makes me excited. Like, it brings joy to me. I would be so happy seeing people,” Davis said. “Everybody’s here. Just the vibes, just the relationship we build with each other is amazing. It feels like home. When you come to these rides. You feel like you are just with family. Nothing else. No strangers.”
The founders and runners want others to know that the Jacksonville Run Club is free and open to everyone.
And when they say everyone, they mean everyone.
“We have moms and moms with strollers. They come out here, they push their kids in a stroller, whatever. Run. We have people bring their dogs out here,” Fowler said.
The club meets every Saturday at 7 a.m. and Tuesdays at 6 p.m. at Friendship Fountain. To learn more visit the Jacksonville Run Club’s Instagram account.
“It’s going to be family. It’s going to be camaraderie. It’s going to be great vibes,” Fowler said.