When last fall we kicked off the No Meat Athlete running groups project, with 75 groups around the U.S. and world, I thought I knew pretty well which groups would thrive and which would have an uphill battle from the beginning.<\/p>\n
Surely,\u00a0I thought,\u00a0the big, vegan-friendly cities that we all think of as such would provide the most fertile grounds for our running carrots to take root.<\/p>\n
Turns out, I was completely wrong.<\/p>\n
Eight months after starting, the running groups project has been a huge success, and for me personally, as\u00a0fulfilling as anything I’ve done with No Meat Athlete. But in a million years I’d never have guessed who our\u00a0most active groups would turn out to be.<\/p>\n
In no particular order: Miami<\/a>, Virginia Beach<\/a>, Oklahoma City<\/a>, and Sydney<\/a>\u00a0(that’s right, Australia!).<\/p>\n To find out how these surprising groups have done it — and more than that, to hang out with amazing people and be a part of all that they’ve got going on — I’ve made it my mission to visit each of them. So far I’ve made it to Miami and Virginia Beach, and this weekend I’ll hop over to Oklahoma City after a conference in Denver (plus a run with the Denver NMA group while I’m there!). As for Sydney, right now it’s on the “one day” list … but I’ll get there. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Over the next few weeks I’ll post about these groups as I visit them, along with my thoughts and those of the group leaders about what exactly makes up their secret sauce. Partly, this is to help our other groups and to inspire new leaders (you, maybe?) to start new groups — but I also hope this information is useful for people who want to start groups around this cause that aren’t<\/em> NMA related.<\/p>\n Because, as Seth Godin says, if the tribe isn’t connected, then it’s not really a tribe.<\/p>\n Fresh off the Holistic Holiday at Sea Cruise<\/a> at the end of March, my wife Erin and I stayed an extra day in Miami to spend some time with the very first NMA group to distinguish itself as a standout.<\/p>\n The fun group videos that co-leader Alex Ruiz posts after their runs were the first thing to catch my attention, and in January the group even got some ink on a local paper’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n I could try to put it in words, but nothing quite captures that Miami feel like video. Here’s the one Alex made of our visit (there’s no sound right now, but we’re working on that …) :<\/p>\nNo Meat Athlete Miami<\/h3>\n