The LA Local has newrooms in Boyle Heights, and Koreatown, Pico Union, Westlake, as well as Inglewood & South L.A.
Runners along their route with Koreatown Run Club at Love Hour in Koreatown on March 26, 2026, in Los Angeles .This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, On a weeknight in April 2016, about 20 people gathered in Koreatown for a run organized by two friends who weren’t sure what they were doing or if anyone would even show up.
, a weekly fixture that now draws hundreds at a time and roughly 800 to a thousand runners across a typical week, according to co-founder Duy Nguyen. The club has expanded well beyond the neighborhood through partnerships with major brands, including sneaker collaborations with Nike and a banner encouraging the group for this year’s L.A. Marathon. Neither Nguyen nor co-founder Michael Pak expected it to last this long, or to take on the kind of role it has in people’s lives. The pair, Nguyen said, were “just looking for stuff to do together.”If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.“I don’t think we thought that far ahead. The idea itself was kind of spur of the moment and then when we had the first run, we were like, ‘oh, what are we doing next?’ And then you blink and it’s 10 years later,” he said. The first run was loosely organized. Nguyen, an avid soccer guy, had originally planned to start a soccer club, but field access and liability concerns made that difficult. Running was simpler to coordinate and required little beyond a meeting point and a time.Late negotiations have yet to secure a deal. If teachers, support staff and principals walk out, school will shut down for about 400,000 students.The 240-pound turtle was taken to the aquarium in January after being found entangled in fishing line and rope in the San Gabriel River.Reynold Hoover also said LA28 wasn't using dynamic pricing yet, but could in future sales. In other words, tickets could get even pricier.“You could run for free and people could come out at their own will and join,” Pak said.“None of us are runners,” Nguyen said. “So we were worried like, what route do we run?”About 20 people showed up that first night, many of them friends who came to support the pair. Pak said much of the attendance over time happened through word of mouth rather than any formal outreach. As the runs became more organized and more people came out to run, the nature of the group began to change. Pak said he started to notice it in conversations with runners who were willing to share more about their lives outside of running. He recalled one woman telling him about her struggle with alcohol addiction and how the club had helped her through it. “That’s when a light bulb went off,” he said. “They have their own personal life, they’re going through their demons in life, and for them to express those feelings at a run club where they don’t know anyone, I realized, well, if it’s just that story, I’m sure there are thousands of other stories that maybe we have an opportunity to learn from.”For many members, the club functions as a place to build relationships that extend beyond the runs themselves. Julie Lee, co-captain of the crew on Thursdays, joined in 2023 after seeing its runners hype each other up in the Rose Bowl Half Marathon. She already knew who they were from Instagram, but said experiencing their energy in person made her want to join. Originally from Maryland, Lee said finding a community she can trust in a new place has been life-changing. “These are the friends that I call when I’m having hard times in life, when I’m going through my breakups, when I need a ride to the airport. This has become my family outside of my actual home,” she said. Charles Austin, another co-captain, said the club filled a similar role for him after returning to the city after college. He’s invited people he met through the club, including Lee, to his wedding last year. “That’s the sort of bonds that you end up building. And that’s something that kind of fulfills me day in and day out,” he said. “I probably couldn’t make it through some of the harder things I’ve been through in the last couple of years if not for KRC.”The club has also influenced how participants interact with the neighborhood itself. Pak said that before joining, he felt some people were hesitant to spend time in the neighborhood or felt unsure navigating it. “When you have friends in the neighborhood and you live in the neighborhood, you get a little curious and have curiosity to explore more of the neighborhood that you live in. And I think we just opened a little door,” he said.“I think maybe the run club opened it up more to being like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna walk to get coffee after a run and stumble upon all these places and meet all these people,’” he said. Running through the neighborhood also shapes how people experience it. While the streets of Koreatown are “unpredictable,” Pak said, moving through the area on foot allows runners to notice details they might otherwise miss. “I think in the beginning, I didn’t expect to see some really undiscovered restaurants and businesses,” Pak said. Over time, Koreatown Run Club has expanded well beyond the city. Lee said that while traveling in South Korea for a marathon, she was welcomed by a local run club simply because she was associated with KRC.Nguyen described a similar experience while traveling in Taiwan, where someone recognized the club’s name on his shirt and came up to talk to him. Similarly, Pak said while traveling Japan, he ran into someone wearing a KRC shirt and ended up going to dinner together. But Pak felt one of the clearest indicators of the club’s reach was when runners began sending him photos of unofficial club merchandise being sold overseas. “That’s when I thought we really made it,” he said, laughing. “We didn’t know we could be bootlegged.” The club has also taken on a larger role during moments of crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pak and Nguyen said runners used group chats to coordinate grocery deliveries and other forms of mutual aid. More recently, after the L.A. fires, the club converted one of its spaces into a relief center, collecting and distributing donations to affected families. Pak said volunteers from the community showed up consistently to help run the effort. “There were just so many volunteers that came through every single day,” he said. “It’s the community that we built. They all come together in a time of need.”“It’s a spot where I can come to and I can build on friendships and family,” he said. “It all starts here and it just kind of branches out from here.” On a recent weeknight at Love Hour — a burger joint co-owned by Pak and Nguyen — Lynn Nguyen, who joined the club in 2017, was in the middle of an interview after a run when she turned to Pak.A few moments later, another runner walked by and stopped to greet her. Nguyen mentioned she had officiated their wedding three years earlier, then laughed and gestured toward the exchange.Both founders said their lives have changed dramatically. Neither expected to run full marathons — Pak has done 10, Nguyen 31 — or to meet people from around the world and see strangers become friends who go on to get married and have kids. “It’s really inspiring to see how many people look at us outside of just Los Angeles. And at this point, it’s way bigger than us and it’s really cool to see new people coming in who I have no idea who they are, but they are part of this long-term journey,” Pak said. Ten years after the first run, they say they still approach running the club without a long-term roadmap and take things day by day. “We’ve been doing that from the start and it’s gotten us here, so I think we’ll just keep going at it,” Nguyen said. “We never think too far ahead.” You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead . Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community. Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive from readers like you will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
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