Hi, my name is Matthew Walters and I am the founder of Runspire. Runspire is an online running community. We’ve been around since April 2019 and it has grown drastically over the last year and a half. I wanted to give you all an insight into why I started Runspire and how it has grown to over 200+ members since it first began.
I was part of an online coaching service called Team Project Run which I left around a year and a half ago. One of the things I knew I was going to miss from being part of this team was being around like-minded individuals. A group of people to talk to about all things running. A team that was supportive. A place I took my motivation from and where I was often inspired by others. Leaving the coaching service, I knew that not having people like this around me would be a negative thing. For me personally, having people to share my journey with is helpful but in return, others sharing their journey with me is also motivating and inspiring.
I got chatting to a good friend of mine, Conor, about starting my own community of sorts. A place I could share my running adventures, get my motivation from, and be inspired by other people. Conor was full-on up for it and so it began; the discussion of what this community should be called. It had to be something that I personally believed it. Something that the running community would believe in. That’s when run to inspire popped into my head. For some strange reason, I decided to merge run and inspire together to make up the word Runspire. There it was: the name of the running community that I wanted and needed.
Runspire started off as a WhatsApp group chat with three people in. I started bringing people into the WhatsApp group from Instagram. People that I thought were inspiring. People I wanted to be part of this community. I then created the Runspire Instagram page where it started to grow even quicker. It didn’t take long for people to start messaging the Runspire page asking to join the team. The more Runspire grew the more I was learning about what it was. It became apparent that we were more than just an online running community. We were connecting runners, bringing people together, and creating friendships.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every member of Runspire for being part of this amazing community. You motivate and inspire me daily.
Thanks for reading,
Matthew