Cover Is Hong Kong the world's best city for running? (Photo: courtesy of Shelter Athletics)
Is Hong Kong the world's best city for running? (Photo: courtesy of Shelter Athletics)
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A global running boom has found an unlikely home in one of the world’s most intense cities—and the clubs forming around it, based from Happy Valley to the hills above Sai Kung, are changing how Hong Kong socialises
Six and a half years ago, I moved to Hong Kong having never run more than 5K in my life. I am now two marathons and an Olympic-distance triathlon deep, and spend a considerable amount of my time surrounded by people who think nothing of a 6am trail start before the rest of the city wakes up. Something happened here. Something is still happening.
This is not unique to Hong Kong by any means. Strava’s 2024 Year in Sport report recorded a 59 per cent increase in run club participation globally, with social connection ranked as the number one reason people lace up. Race entries are climbing too: there was a 7.8 per cent overall rise in 2025, with half marathons leading the way. Running has become the defining fitness movement of this decade, and the clubs forming around it are less about pace and more about people.
But Hong Kong? Hong Kong was supposed to be the exception.
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Above Shelter Athletics has taken the city by storm (Photo: courtesy of Shelter Athletics)
Above Run clubs in Hong Kong create a deep sense of community (Photo: courtesy of Shelter Athletics)
Shelter Athletics has taken the city by storm (Photo: courtesy of Shelter Athletics)
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On paper, this city has no business being a runner’s paradise. It is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. The summers are brutal—humidity above 90 per cent for months, heat that turns a short run into a survival exercise. The working culture is legendary for its hours. And the social scene has always had its own gravitational pull—late nights in Lan Kwai Fong or Soho; early morning regrets. Running was not supposed to fit in here.
Except it does. And once you live here, you understand why.
Drop down to Happy Valley on any weekday evening and you will find hundreds of runners circling the track in the middle of the famous racecourse—groups of all ages, paces and nationalities, some in club kit, some just showing up. Head up to The Peak on a Saturday morning and the trails are full before 7am. The waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui, the paths through Sai Kung, the quiet roads above Shek O; the city is riddled with routes that most people outside Hong Kong would—could—never picture.
Above Running Man Athletic Club has a passionate membership base in Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of RMAC)
Running Man Athletic Club has a passionate membership base in Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of RMAC)
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The clubs have organised themselves around all of the seemingly hostile geography and unlikely routes. Shelter Athletics, founded in 2022 by branding strategist Jason Lam, has built something closer to a creative community than a training group: design-forward, culture-aware, drawing members who care as much about what the club represents as how fast they run. RMAC, founded in 2015, sits at the other end of the scale: 19 weekly training sessions across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, over more than 10,000 members, 1,400 runners per session. Then there is Midnight Runners, the global bootcamp-run format that arrived in Hong Kong in 2019 and has grown to more than 1,000 members—music blasting, exercise stops every few kilometres, drinks afterwards. Different formats, different communities, same pull.
Lam says, “One thing we’ve learnt building Shelter is that people rarely stay because of the running itself; they stay because they’ve found people who know their name, check in on them, celebrate their wins, and show up when things aren’t going well. In a city that can often feel transient, that’s incredibly powerful.
Above Midnight Runners often dress up for the runs (Photo: courtesy of Midnight Runners)
Midnight Runners often dress up for the runs (Photo: courtesy of Midnight Runners)
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Ultimately these numbers reflect Hong Kong’s innate intensity. Hongkongers have always worked hard, played hard and burned the candle from both ends. The generation of the majority of these club runners built its social identity around late nights. What has shifted, quietly and then very quickly, is where they are choosing to direct that energy. The early morning run has created a genuine alternative social infrastructure. The same ambition, drive and desire for community—a need to be around people who push you—but different hours (starting at 6am instead of ending then) and different consequences the next day.
This shift has not gone unnoticed elsewhere. Sportswear and luxury brands have been paying attention: run clubs have become one of the most efficient routes to Hong Kong's upwardly mobile professionals, and activations are quietly flooding in.
On the worst humidity days, when the air feels like warm soup before 7am, people are still out. Not because they have to be, but because everyone else is. I know I do it. And that is the thing about a run club in a city like this. It takes something that is challenging and makes it feel, somehow, completely normal.
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Pete Laverick is a sports and lifestyle journalist for Tatler Hong Kong. A former professional rugby player, he brings an athlete’s perspective to his coverage of the city’s sports and fitness scene. A committed fitness enthusiast, Pete is always testing something new—from Hyrox to marathons and triathlons—writing with the first-hand insight of someone who has lived at the top level of sport. He also has a standing invitation from Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeannie Buss to watch the Lakers at the Crypto.com Arena if he makes it to California.
