It's the vibes. The forced mingling. The post-run happy hours where you're cornered into small talk with someone named Bryce who wants to tell you about his marathon PR and his microdosing protocol. For a growing number of SF runners, the social treadmill that comes bolted onto every run club is exactly what they're trying to escape.

One local recently floated the idea of an "antisocial run club" — a group built around coaching, accountability, and structured training, minus all the networking-event energy. Show up, learn technique, do the work, go home. No ice breakers. No group brunch. As they put it: "I promise I won't be your friend."

Honestly? We get it.

San Francisco has become a city where every activity has to double as a social platform. You can't do yoga without a community circle. You can't grab coffee without a "connection opportunity." Even running — the most beautifully solitary sport ever invented — has been hijacked by people who treat it like LinkedIn with sneakers.

The responses were predictably practical. One SF resident suggested it sounded "paradoxical for individuals who don't want to be in a group," while another cut straight to the chase: "You just want OrangeTheory gym."

Fair points, both. But they miss something. What this person is really asking for is structured accountability without social obligation — and that's a perfectly reasonable thing to want. Not everyone who values community wants to be in community every second of the day. Sometimes you just want to be alone, together.

From a liberty-minded perspective, this is a small but telling example of how SF's relentless culture of forced togetherness can push people away from the very groups that might help them. When every club demands your full social participation as the price of entry, you end up with people who'd rather just stay home — which defeats the entire purpose.

So if someone wants to start a run club where the only expectation is that you show up and shut up? We say lace up. The city could use a little more doing and a little less networking.