When you’re sleeping, they’re running. Together, they never tire
After a long day of fitting shoes and selling merchandise at the Nike store on Lincoln Road, a group of employees decided to do what you would least expect at their 11 p.m. closing time.
They ran. They ran all around Miami Beach. They ran to South Pointe Park and the North Beach Bandshell. They ran along Washington Avenue, North Bay Road, the boardwalk and the Venetian Causeway. Sometimes they ran three miles, sometimes they ran until 1:30 a.m.
Those midnight runs were born as a way for colleagues to decompress and grew over the years into a way for a loyal pack of friends to connect with their community. They call themselves the Late Night Menu Crew. They will be racing as a group — wearing their LNMC singlets — in Sunday’s Life Time Miami Marathon and Half Marathon, 20 in the half, five in the full, joining 18,000 others in the annual scenic trek through Miami, Miami Beach, Brickell and Coconut Grove.
Because they are dedicated night owls, they are sticking to their tradition of meeting downtown at Club Space at 3 a.m. to get energized by the music, hydrate with water and Red Bull, stretch together and jog to Corral F on Biscayne Boulevard for the 6:15 a.m. start. After they finish, they return to Club Space — where the party never stops — to celebrate. So they have a prerace party and a postrace party.
“Club Space is ideal because it’s really hitting its peak around 5 a.m., and when we go back after the race we see the same people dancing,” said Arthur Alexander, co-founder and captain of Late Night Menu Crew. “During the race, as we’re coming down North Miami Avenue at about 8 a.m., depending on your pace, we’re all used to seeing Club Space patrons wander out into the sunlight in their party clothes to cheer the runners.”
Plus, meeting up to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles before dawn is a lot more fun when you do it at a hopping nightclub with a bunch of wide-awake fellow runners eager to provide motivation.
“It’s nerve-wracking to start a half or full marathon. You’re anxious. You’re tired,” Alexander said. “We inject excitement. We make it into a celebration of your commitment to training. It’s easier to do almost anything with friends. Running doesn’t have to be a solo sport. We support each other.”
Emily LaRoche, who has been running with the crew for three years, arranged the Club Space rendezvous through a friend who is marketing director of the club. The headliner DJs usually play from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., perfect timing for the runners, who, along with the clubbers, will be in for a treat Sunday when DJ Nora En Pure is the star attraction.
“On that morning we are the oddest-looking people in Club Space, doing our 30-minute dance warmup in shorts and running shoes. Then we come back after putting our bodies through hell,” LaRoche said Wednesday night around 10 p.m. after completing a prep run for the half marathon with the crew. “The whole idea is finding energy through camaraderie.”
Alexander, 33, who played basketball for Broward College, used to hate running. Not for nothing were those sprint workouts on the court called “suicides.”
“Running was punishment,” he said. “Then it became therapy. Then while working at the Nike store I got more serious. Not only did I want to improve as a runner, but as a person of color I wanted to get more people involved in the sport. I wanted to urbanize running.
“When you get out of work at night in South Beach, South Beach isn’t closed. It’s alive and buzzing. We were able to show people on the street and in the bars and restaurants how much fun we were having as a group of friends and co-workers, and grow a running community.”
Alexander built the club from its South Beach meeting spot at Bodega Taqueria on 16th Street and expanded it to other locations using the example of race director Frankie Ruiz, who has created and led a proliferating number of running clubs that meet daily or weekly for workouts across South Florida.
LNMC members have hosted runs at hotels, cafes and sporting goods stores and have collaborated with various brands to promote running shoes, sunglasses and recovery drinks.
“This is not lucrative for us — we all have full-time jobs,” said Alexander, who now works in fashion sales. “It’s a way to showcase our crew and group runs in general. The number of running clubs in Miami has grown from a handful when we started to 50, 60, maybe 100.”
For crew members such as Alexander and LaRoche the group approach has taken them farther than they imagined. Their goals include running every major marathon in the world.
“We try to inspire each other in all facets of life,” LaRoche said. “What makes this crew special is, we never leave anybody behind.”
