Belgrade Running Club Building a Running Movement One Kilometre at a Time

Six people showed up to a snow-covered track in Olimp Park on a February morning in 2011. That was it. No fanfare, no crowd, no precedent to follow. The idea of a membership-based recreational running club in Belgrade was, at the time, genuinely radical. Most people who ran did so alone, and the broader culture of group running simply did not exist in the city. Those six runners, breath visible in the cold air, did not know they were starting something that would grow into one of Serbia's most significant grassroots sports movements. They were just trying to get a few laps in together. That is where the history of the Belgrade Running Club begins.

Two Founders and a Shared Vision

The club was shaped from the very start by two people whose belief in the power of running ran deeper than the sport itself. Veroljub, one of the club's founders, is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern running movement in Serbia. Long before Belgrade Running Club existed, he founded the magazine Trčanje.rs in 2008, a period when only a handful of people in the country were running regularly. He saw something in the sport that others had not yet noticed, a capacity to shift how people related to their own bodies, their cities, and each other. Ivan, the club's head coach and fellow founder, draws his inspiration from a different source: the philosophy and aesthetics of the New York Marathon, a race that has long represented the idea that running belongs to everyone, not just the elite. Together, these two built a club that reflects both of those influences. It is grounded in a democratic, accessible vision of sport, and it carries the ambition of a movement that believes running can genuinely change a city.

What the Club Was Always Meant to Be

Belgrade Running Club was never designed to produce champions. That distinction matters, and the club has always been deliberate about it. The goal, from the first training session in Olimp Park to the present day, has been to create a supportive environment where ordinary people feel genuinely welcomed, challenged, and seen. Every kilometre covered by a member is treated as a real achievement, not a warm-up to something more impressive. The club's founding philosophy holds that recreational running should be accessible to anyone who wants to challenge themselves, form healthy habits, or simply spend time with people who share similar values. There is no hierarchy based on pace or race results. What matters is showing up, doing the work, and coming back for the next session. This ethos has proven durable. Around 400 members later, the club still operates from the same core conviction that shaped those first six runners on a snowy track more than a decade ago.

Running as a Mass Health Movement

One of the more striking aspects of Belgrade Running Club's identity is the scale of its ambition. The founders have consistently framed the club not merely as a place to train, but as an agent of civic and cultural change. Their stated aim is to help create a more active Belgrade, a city where sports culture is something people participate in rather than passively consume. Running through the streets and parks of Belgrade, in groups, at consistent times, serves as a visible signal that things can be different. It is a soft form of advocacy, made powerful by repetition and community. The club also organises projects and campaigns specifically aimed at developing sports and active lifestyles across Serbia. These efforts extend the club's reach beyond its own membership, into conversations about public health, urban space, and what a city can look like when its citizens choose to move through it on their own terms. That ambition, quietly stated but seriously pursued, sets the tone for everything Belgrade Running Club does.

Three Weekly Runs Across the City

The club's running schedule reflects both its size and its understanding of Belgrade's geography. On Tuesday evenings at 18:30, the group meets at the Košutnjak Track and Field, a green and relatively sheltered part of the city that offers a reliable surface for evening training. Thursday evenings also start at 18:30, with the meeting point shifting to Ušće, the expansive riverside park at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. The Saturday morning run begins at 09:00 at Ada Ciganlija, the beloved river island that stretches through the city and has become one of Belgrade's most cherished outdoor spaces. Each of these locations carries its own character. Košutnjak is wooded and focused. Ušće is open and urban, offering views across the water to the old fortress. Ada Ciganlija brings a weekend ease, longer distances, and the particular pleasure of running beside water in the morning light. Taken together, the three weekly runs amount to a geography lesson in what Belgrade's outdoor spaces can offer to those willing to move through them on foot.

A Team That Holds It Together

A club of around 400 members does not run itself. Belgrade Running Club is held together by a team of captains who bring consistency, personality, and care to every session. Marko, Marko, Tatjana, Draško, Boris, Draza, Ljubica, Stefan, Vladimir, and Aleksandar form the captain network that keeps the club functioning across its multiple weekly runs and activities. This is not a small team, and the breadth of it reflects the scope of what the club has become. Running schools for beginners, group runs of considerable size, race participation, and organised trips to marathons across Serbia and abroad all require coordination, commitment, and people who genuinely care about the members they are running alongside. The captains provide all of that. Their presence also reinforces something important about the club's culture: leadership here is about service to the group, not status within it.

Open to Visitors, Built for Members

Belgrade Running Club operates a membership model for its regular community, with fees covering coached training sessions and the full range of club activities. For visitors passing through Belgrade, however, the club has a straightforward and generous policy: join them for free during your stay. This makes Belgrade Running Club one of those relatively rare clubs that genuinely functions as a point of connection for the city's running scene rather than a closed community accessible only to locals. The BRC Runners Hub serves as the club's home base, a fixed point in the city where the community anchors itself beyond the runs themselves. The club also maintains an open Facebook group where members and interested runners can connect, share routes, and explore the city together. For those new to running in Belgrade, the group's knowledge of safe evening routes, well-lit streets, and the rhythms of the city's parks is as practical as it is welcoming.

Belgrade's Running Scene and Where BRC Fits

Belgrade has developed into a genuinely active running city, with a calendar of events that spans the year and a growing culture of recreational sport. The Belgrade Marathon draws runners from across the world. The Belgrade Night Run offers a different relationship with the city, streets cleared of traffic, landmarks lit up, the familiar made strange and beautiful by darkness. The Ada Ciganlija Trail Race, held in the same riverside park where Belgrade Running Club gathers on Saturday mornings, gives trail runners a rare opportunity to race through urban green space. Within this growing scene, Belgrade Running Club occupies a particular position. It predates much of what now feels normal in the city's running culture, and it helped make that culture possible. Other crews have since emerged, including the Capital Crew Belgrade and the Belgrade Urban Running Team, each with their own approach and community. The existence of multiple crews is, in a sense, a sign that the vision Veroljub and Ivan had in 2011 has materialised. Belgrade is a city that runs now. Belgrade Running Club was there first, on a cold morning in the snow, with six people who had no idea what they were building.