There were a few aspects that made Resident Runners unique compared to other early New York City run crews.

For one, the founders aren’t originally from New York, having grown up in different areas across the U.S. before meeting each other after moving to the city—the inspiration for the name Resident Runners. Secondly, they run fast, a threshold effort through the streets that differs from the beginner-friendly easy runs of most other groups as well.

But to co-founder Raymond Hailes, standing out was never really the goal.

“I think a lot of times people try to do something to make something out of it. We’ve never done anything to get validation,” Raymond says. “We don’t really lean into anything. The only thing that we lean into is folks just coming out and having a good time.”

In the end, that attitude is what allowed Resident Runners to grow, along with their relentless consistency of weekly Thursday threshold runs and monthly Taco Runs—a structure that has remained largely unchanged since they started in 2013. However, Raymond adds that one thing that has evolved is the meaning behind why he runs, from staying connected to the crew’s co-founders to inspiring his own son.

We spoke with Raymond to discuss the origins of Resident Runners, why racing has never been a main focus for him, his experience exploring the trails and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you give an intro of where you’re from and how you initially got into running?

Yeah, so born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then relocated to Dallas, Texas. Grew up in Dallas, spent a large portion of my life in Dallas. And then in high school I started to run track. Texas Relays are a huge thing down in Texas, so as a sprinter that’s really what my focus was, running the 100, 4×100, long jump, triple jump and 110 hurdles. And then my last year before college, there were a couple of things that happened to teammates of mine and friends who I ran throughout high school with, they got injured. Prior to that, I had two scholarships to run track and field in college. And then that happened, and I was like, ‘You know what? Let me stay on the safe side and just do something different.’ So ended up going to school for music business. After college, I ended up moving to New York, in 2007. And when I came to New New York, it was mainly about the hustle and making sure I kept up financially and getting a job.

I was living in a music studio on 49th and Broadway, sleeping on the ground on the floor in the music studio, taking a shower at New York Sports Club in the Crowne Plaza right across the street, and coming back over, still making music. From there, I was like, ‘Nah, this is not working.’ And then one day, I literally just walked from there all the way up to 72nd, and was crossing over 72nd to Central Park, and saw this sign in the window that said, ‘Help Wanted.’ And it was a sneaker store that my now-good friend started…. Walked in, said, ‘Hey, I’m in music business management, but I also have dabbled in a lot of marketing and whatnot.’ And he said, ‘Well, we need some help. Come back, help us out.’ I get halfway up to Harlem, where I was going to look at an apartment, and then he called me and said, ‘Hey, we want you to come back. You’re hired.’ Because they just opened, he’s like, ‘We just need somebody.’ Came back, started working with them. And then from there I learned a lot about New York culture, working in a sneaker store but then also on the back end and on the marketing side. And that culture is so huge, and how it coincides with the athletic part of it, and the athleisure and the running part of it.

Fast forward a little bit further, I met [Resident Runners co-founder Eric Blevens]. Eric’s sister came into the store, and she would come in often, and we immediately connected because we’re both from the South. And she’s like, ‘My little brother’s moving up here from Georgia, I’d love for you guys to connect.’ When he came, we were just hanging out, and he came from a personal trainer background, and I was like, ‘Shoot, man, I’m trying to get my body right, would love your assistance.’ And as soon as he came [to New York], he ended up running the [NYC Marathon] that year. And I was just like, ‘Let me go ahead and try and be a part of that and see what I can do.’ Because up until then, I had never run a marathon, half marathon at all. It was all sprinting, and fast pace.

On starting Resident Runners:

That friendship [with Eric] started just simply as us hanging. I was in music, he was a DJ as well, and we would just hang out…. And then we started taking things seriously as far as running together, trying to get our health together, and I said to him, ‘Why don’t we just start our own running crew?’ Before that, we were going to other people’s running nights, like BridgeRunners was the biggest one at that time. And then I said, ‘Why don’t we just start our own running crew, call it Resident Runners?’ It was actually birthed out of a music studio that I used to manage, and we were just like, ‘Let’s start this running crew, this is the only day that we have available for us, the other days we’re working’…. So started on the Thursdays, we did every Thursday. We ran out of the sneaker store that I helped open, so it was easy and simple. And then when we ran the marathons, we would host these little after-party events on that same block, because that’s where the marathon ended on 72nd Street, and people would walk down. So I talked to the owner, and I was like, ‘Hey, we just want to have a few people over.’ A few people turned into like 100, 120, and so we took over our sneaker store, and then the pizza spot that was right next door to it, it brought them business, and it brought the sneaker store business. So it worked out perfectly….

And at the beginning, this is way before run clubs and run crews were a thing, right? I could count on one hand the run crews. You had BridgeRunners, you had Undo-Ordinary, you had WRU Crew, you had us, you had Orchard Street Runners. It was just fun. It was chilling…. During that time, you had a lot of corporations and brands like Nike and Adidas who were taking a look at that, and they were like, ‘Oh wow, we love this connection.’ One of the brands that took a liking to us was Under Armour. They came, they approached us, they said, ‘We’re starting our running division, we want you guys to be the face of the running division, run crews, as we set everything up.’ And so we signed with Under Armour in 2014 I want to say….

Eric (left) and Raymond (right) at the 2017 NYC Marathon

The Taco Run started out as a monthly run out of one of our favorite taco spots in Brooklyn called Gueros. The way that started—Eric lived right down the street, and we had a birthday run for Eric. And that’s where Rahsaan [Rogers] came in. So he randomly came into the house and was like, ‘Hey, I’m from LA, want to come and see what this is about.’ We ran five miles around Prospect Park and then ended at the taco spot, and then that’s kind of where the Taco Run started. Taco Runs turned into like 10, and then it ended up being like 100, 200 heads coming out, especially in the summer times. And then that actually turned into Under Armour approaching us and saying, ‘Hey, y’all want to take this Taco Run on a tour?’ So we took it on a tour to eight cities, and that was super successful.

“You might get lost in New York City, but to be honest with you, that’s the point. You get lost. You find out new locations. You find something new to do and come back to after you run”

So, long story short, we started Resident Runners with the intention of just us coming together as homies and running, and it being an outlet for us. And then that quickly turned into people coming to us and saying, ‘Hey, y’all really run fast on these Thursdays, I would love to join you all, because I’m training for this marathon or this trail run or whatever, just to get my speed up. But also, y’all are cool, so we can hang afterwards.’ Cause when people come out and run with us on Thursdays, it’s really about—you might get lost in New York City, but to be honest with you, that’s the point. You get lost. You find out new locations. You find something new to do and come back to after you run. But then you ultimately have a great conversation with a few people that you might not have had a conversation with…. Ultimately, bringing people together was our biggest thing.

A couple of the aspects that made [Resident Runners] unique compared to other crews at the time—one, you mentioned the fact that you’re running hard on Thursdays. Most other crews, it’s mostly focused on just easy runs, OSR was kind of the only other one [running hard]…. Why was that something you leaned into?

Were there any other aspects that you think made you guys unique at the time compared to other crews that were starting, and how that helped you guys grow or stand out?

Yeah, man, I don’t know if it was something that we really leaned into. I think a lot of times people try to do something to make something out of it. We’ve never done anything to get validation. It was always like, ‘All right, cool, we’re running.’ We kept a fast pace at the beginning, and that’s just something that continued. We didn’t say, ‘This is gonna be a fast run.’ It all of a sudden became, ‘Those dudes just run fast’…. When we say the route, we let people know, ‘Hey guys, this is the route. If y’all need one of us to hang back with you, cool. If you don’t mind getting lost, cool. Just don’t die, cause we do run in the streets.’

“I think a lot of times people try to do something to make something out of it. We’ve never done anything to get validation”

So that’s how really relaxed we were, man. And I think people just get it. To answer your question, we don’t really lean into anything. The only thing that we lean into is folks just coming out and having a good time. That’s it. We’re not putting any pressure on anybody. We want you to come in and have a great time.

What we do lean into is the Taco Runs now. The Taco Runs are great, because that’s a chill run, five miles around Prospect Park, it’s once a month. After that, we go and grab tacos and drink margaritas. And we lean into that because we know that people nowadays need an outlet to just let their hair down, and just not think about somebody coming in and asking them, ‘Oh, so what did you run the New York City Marathon in? What time was yours? What’s your pace like?’ People just want to chill. It’s funny because people come to the Taco Run, and it’s a relief to not hear somebody ask about their time or their pace in the marathon.

It’s been 13 years since you guys founded [Resident Runners]. Have there been any ways that you guys have evolved throughout the last 13 years as well?

I think one of the main things that has evolved and changed is that we all have had kids, we all are dads. And we all have a different look on what running is and means to us and each other, whether that is a different purpose, whether that is inspiring other dads who want to remain active and don’t know how to remain active. The story that you told about your dad, how your dad ran [the NYC Marathon] back in the day, and then you wanted to run it—to me, that’s an inspiration. So just passing that down for my son, and then Eric’s son—if they want to run it, then cool. At least there’ll be that moment, that memory that they remember, they’re like, ‘My dad always used to talk about running.’ So that’s one of the things that has changed.

I think one of the things that hasn’t changed is people coming out and showing up for us in whatever we do. And I think that as long as you have consistency and you’re honest and you just show up, then that’s the thing that’s going to ring true to whatever it is that you try and bring into this running community. Because I think we live in a day and age where there are a lot of running crews out here that have been around for a long time that can see through the smoke. And they can see and tell you, ‘Yeah, no, we don’t really want to support that.’

On your individual running, you ran the New York City Marathon several times, then a couple other marathons as well. But I also listened to [the Urban Sports Insider podcast] where you and Eric talked about how racing was never at the forefront of your running goals, or never the main focus.

I’m curious if you want to talk through why that is, and what those main goals with running were over the years?

I think for me, that’s so true—racing wasn’t a main goal. For me it was an outlet. It was a mental outlet. I think that it’s still to this day a mental outlet, because now I have a kid, and my partner, we have a house, and it’s like, I need to run. I know that I’ll be in a bad mood if I haven’t run. I have this anxiety if I don’t run. But then I also know that—I think running is a gift and a curse, because you can run to release, but you can also run to run away from something instead of confronting it. And I think that we kind of do that sometimes….

I think at the end of the day…it’s about the mental health behind it, and being able to be in the same room as these two guys who I started this running crew with. We’re on a text thread and we’re just talking about parent shit and regular shit, like, ‘How’s your day going? How’s your mom doing? How’s your dad doing? How’s the relationship? Can’t wait till you come back out here’…. And that would have never happened without that interaction through running.

You have explored the trails a little bit within your running as well. What motivated that?…. And anything you’d say in terms of why people should try out the trails?

I love the trails, and I think that everybody should do the trails. First of all, I know that for a lot of runners…running gives them an excuse to travel, to go see other places, and that’s the greatest thing. And I love it. As it relates to trails, I think that it does the same thing. For me, when I’m on the trails, it just breaks up the scenery. And I’m a big nature dude. I grew up in the South, but I was always outdoors. So I think what the trails do for me is allow me to get lost and see the world differently, and have different thoughts, and have different ideas. I come up with the best ideas whenever I’m on the trails, especially now I’m in a marketing field….

I got into the trail running because of Under Armour. They did a number of activations with running crews that they signed after us. And they would fly us out to Colorado and spend three days out in the wilderness running trails with experts, athletes—I’m talking about trail runners who will finish a trail in like a marathon time. That doesn’t make any sense, it’s crazy.

Anything else you want to touch on in terms of whether it be favorite moments or memories in your individual running, or also favorite moments or memories with Resident Runners in general as well?

There are a few. I think any runs that I do where it’s myself, Eric and Rahsaan, those are my favorite runs. Because when we’re running, we don’t run with headphones, we don’t even talk on our run, we just listen to each other and our pace. There are times when we get in lockstep, when you hear our footsteps, they’re just pop pop pop pop pop. It’s just something about that that’s just amazing. So that’s one of my favorite times to run.

As far as runs that I’ve done or experiences that I’ve had, I would say doing the Under Armour tour. So Under Armour chose me to take me on tour to represent and be the spokesperson for their HOVR technology, and that took me to Munich, Berlin, L.A., New York, London, Shanghai. And that experience was really fun to be able to see the cultures and the different running crew cultures, all in those cities, and to see how they reacted to what we were doing in the U.S. and how it inspired them. It was something that I’ve never done before, and to be a part of that was amazing. And then coming back stateside to be able to talk to all of the executives at Under Armour about my experience and give my input on what they could do better in the future, that was amazing because it showed that people do listen. To be heard, to have a seat at a table, to talk to the people who are developing this product, it felt really good.

And then lastly, to watch my son want to do this as well, it’s a huge inspiration. He’ll [ask], ‘Can I go out on a run with you dad?’ And like, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m about to run three miles, you good with that?’ And he’s like, ‘Cool.’ And to be able to have him by my side and running out there, but then [him] also say, ‘All right, give me one second, I just need a drink of water real quick.’ To listen to his body and understand his body, and to not try and push himself because he wants to keep up with me, but he wants to listen to himself, I’m like, ‘Okay, you are becoming your own person, and I love that.’

A big part of your running in Resident Runners is just going out, getting lost, etc. Are there any favorite or underrated running spots that you found throughout the years that you think more people should try out?

I mean, man, I love to run down West Side Highway, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Williamsburg. I think the Manhattan Bridge is great, just because it’s not as crowded….

We run out of Uncle Roger’s every Thursday night, and that was a new spot, new bar that just opened. And I think running out of there and doing routes around there are really fun, because a lot of people in that neighborhood might not be runners or might not be as active, but when they see us, they get excited and they get inspired.

“A lot of people in that neighborhood might not be runners or might not be as active, but when they see us, they get excited and they get inspired…. That is the shit that I’m talking about. That’s what inspires me”

Our second time running out of Uncle Roger’s, one of the bartenders ran with us. He’s like, ‘I’m off tonight, so I would love to get a run in with y’all.’ That right there is like, man, you don’t know what that could have done to that person. That could have been their first run, and that first run turned into them wanting to run a New York City Marathon…. That is the shit that I’m talking about. That’s what inspires me.

Any topics that I didn’t specifically ask about that you’d like to touch on, or just any closing thoughts?

I think one of the things that we, the Resident Runners—it’s all about get up, get out, get running. That’s the motto that we run off of. And don’t put any pressure on yourself. Be consistent, be authentic, have fun, and come out to our Taco Runs because they’re the greatest. You’ll find out a lot about yourself when you come out to a Resident Runners Taco Run.

Photo by @paulsta_