A Decade Of Showing Up For Runners In Central Texas

What often goes unsaid amid the boom of running clubs shaping culture in Central Texas is the most important task at hand.

That you must show up. 

Sure, local influencer Peyton Knight’s social media posts are fun. So are the cinematic social clips from the Bare Performance Nutrition team. A quick follow of the RawDawg Run Club will tap you into life with the boyz, complete with trips to Miami, Los Angeles and New York. 

But really, all that disguises from the main point: You have to show up. 

Showing up in the sweltering heat after office hours? It ain’t easy. 

What makes it more palatable, though, is having a group like the East Side Beer Runners, which is entering its 10th year of operation this month. Every Wednesday at Central Machine Works, more than 100 sweaty runners show up for the weekly run. 

“It’s somewhere you can come and kind of forget for a little bit about your life and just bond with people in the community,” said Zelina Ruiz, a regular who shows up with her boyfriend, Alex Mendieta. 

More impressive? It might be the fact that the East Side Beer Runners have survived the pandemic, a location change, and a few changes in leadership. The runners you see today might not be the ones who showed up a decade ago. Or maybe they are. 

“It’s kind of exciting and cool that, while we didn’t found this club, but we’ve been able to carry on that legacy and keep it going through some really challenging times,” said Carly Bormann, 34, a co-leader of the East Side Beer Runners alongside Josh McCalip.

Starting The Run

The clock strikes 6:34 p.m. on a recent Wednesday when Bormann and McCalip gather the assembled crowd around the picnic tables outside Central Machine Works.

If this was your first time here, you would be amazed at how many people actually agree to do this. The heat is absolutely suffocating. Rotating fans on nearby beams blow a steady stream of mist. I haven’t even run yet and gobs of sweat are pouring out of me. There are at least 100 willing participants. 

The moment goes to show an important reminder: There’s a special kind of toughness reserved for social runners. Maybe it’s the naivete or the inexperience, but it should go without saying that professional runners would not imagine conditions like these on their worst enemies. 

Social running sometimes does not need logic. 

Anyway, Bormann and McCalip describe the set-up. It’s a mile to the meeting spot at Marcelino’s, then it’s a pick-and-choose type of workout. 

We’re supposed to criss-cross streets before making our way back to the starting point. The workout is one of about 12 the group rotates through.

What paces, exactly? It’s up to us, really. 

The History of the East Side Beer Runners

Bormann and McCalip became de facto leaders of the East Side Beer Runners at the tail-end of 2020, just as the world was coming out of the pandemic.

And, hey, do you need a reminder? Things were crazy back then. 

Group runs were not en vogue, so the group had to adapt. The way the club did it back then, Bormann said, was pretty simple: Pick up a six-pack at your local gas station, run your workout, then hop on Zoom afterward. 

The social hour would have to be virtual. But at least it was something. “We did that for quite awhile,” Bormann said. 

When group runs resumed, the East Side Beer Runners were without a location. Its former spot, Hops & Grain, shut down its taproom, so the group was tasked with finding a new location. 

Bormann said leaders brainstormed and took suggestions. Three breweries entered into the discussion. The group ran workouts at all three. Then, everyone voted: What was the best spot? 

Central Machine Works eventually earned that honor. 

Back then, the group was a microcosm of what it would become. Bormann and McAlip were joined by another co-lead Andy Gilbert. “When we started,” McCalip said, “It was about 30 or 40 people. It was reasonable.” 

The East Side Beer Runners meet before a Wednesday run recently in August. Photo Credit: Cory Mull/Austin Fit Magazine.

Shortly after the pandemic ended, the East Side Beer Runners began meeting for weekly runs at Central Machine Works in East Austin. Photo Credit: Cory Mull/Austin Fit Magazine.

Finding Their Place 

For anyone who’s been around the Austin running scene for more than a couple years, Bormann isn’t a stranger. She’s a regular at Fleet Feet’s Friday morning run, and treats this sport like it’s her second job.

About five years ago, she married Michael “Slim” Morris, a local roadracing legend and soon-to-be U.S. Olympic Trials marathon runner. “We met through the running community,” she says. 

Bormann works for YETI, so her days are busy. But on most mornings or evenings, she’s running with the pack. Or leading it. On Wednesdays, she always finds time. Morris often joins her–though he’s gotten the bulk of his miles done in the morning. 

It’s not lost on either what this community means to them. “It’s basically our family,” she said. 

McCalip’s road to the East Side Beer Runners arrived at a different point in his life. Like Bormann, he first started running with the group in 2018. But the sport hadn’t always been a priority. 

As a mechanical engineer who often found himself inside an office working on long-term projects, at some point he let himself get away. “I needed a mental reset,” he said. 

What followed was a 2,000-mile through-hike of the Appalachian Trail that took five months. When he returned, McCalip was inspired to keep going. His Wednesdays became important because the weekly interval workouts offered variety to the trail runs he had been accustomed to. 

“Running is a good escape for just being in a problem-solving environment,” he said.  

A Hard Workout Through East Austin

The warm-up mile to Marcelino’s hits the spot as gobs of people retreat toward the shade. I manage to run the last half with a new member named Austin who referred to running “as a drug” that was slowly becoming a daily habit.

Bormann waits for the group’s last runners on the corner. When it comes to, let’s say, making a point, Bormann is often the best candidate to use her outdoor voice. “The day’s not getting any younger!” she screams. “Let’s go!” 

Swaths of runners head north on Tillery Street. 

I wait for a couple beats before I slot into a small pack of four and hit the road with a group of runners who are my speed.

My COROS picks up the directions: from Tillery to Neal, then Gunter, over to Govalle Avenue back to Tillery …and on and on, you get the drift. 

“It’s a choose-your-own-adventure type of run,” Bormann says. 

My personal plan, as I devise it almost as I begin running, is to hit the vertical sections hard and use the cross streets as recovery. 

I end up covering just under two miles in under nine-minute mile pace–a very hobby jogger-esque run. 

What’s Next For East Side Beer Runners

Back at Central Machine Works, hordes of runners post up in groups along the picnic tables and grab pints of beer.

It’s easy to see why the club has gained notoriety: For as much as a good workout cleanses the soul, so does a crisp brewski. 

A few years ago, McCalip said, the Austin-American Statesman was looking for a local run club partner for Global Running Day. The East Side Beer Runners happily accommodated the request. 

Last June, he said, over 1,000 runners took part in the citywide initiative. It was one of the biggest events the club has ever held. That day has kept growing in stature. 

“I think a lot of it has to do with us caring equally about running and socializing,” McCalip said. “It’s always been a beer run club, and so that kind of social and friendly community ethos has been there from day one.”

Ruiz and Mendieta’s first workout with the club, in fact, was on Global Running Day in 2023. Ruiz has run a half marathon since, while Mendieta – an ambassador for the Austin Marathon – covered the BMW Dallas Marathon. “We push each other here,” Ruiz said. 

Bormann says she’s excited for the future. 

“We’ll keep showing up as long as the runners keep showing up,” she said.