Claremont Trotters Building Community One Run at a Time in California

Four Runners, One Idea, and a City Worth Exploring

It started with four people who wanted company on their runs. Not a race team, not a club with complicated membership tiers, just a small circle of runners who believed that logging miles alongside others made the whole endeavor more worthwhile. In January 2019, Christina, the crew's founding force, brought that belief to life by launching the Claremont Trotters in Claremont, California. The name is unfussy and direct, much like the crew itself. No grand manifesto, no elaborate origin story. Just a genuine desire to create something that would give people a reason to lace up and show up, week after week, in one of the San Gabriel Valley's most quietly charming cities. Christina did not build it alone. She was joined from the outset by three others who each brought something distinct to the group. Emilio, the very first person to join after Christina, is a committed marathon runner and the artist responsible for designing the Trotters' logo, the visual identity that now represents the crew wherever it appears. Nancy, the second person to come aboard, earned a reputation within the group as the motivator. She was the one who pushed the Trotters to take on their first major race together, the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon, turning what might have remained a casual running group into a crew with collective ambition. And then there is John, the English teacher who writes the crew's Instagram captions and who, by all accounts, represents Long Beach with unwavering pride in everything he does. Together, these four gave the Claremont Trotters its character long before the group grew to around 40 members.

A Philosophy Rooted in Showing Up Together

The Claremont Trotters operate around a vision that is refreshingly uncomplicated: build a community to run with. That phrase carries more weight than it might first appear. Running, for many people, is a solitary pursuit, a way to carve out quiet time in a noisy world. But it can also be isolating, especially for those new to the habit or returning after a long break. The Trotters recognized that early on and made a deliberate choice to structure the crew around inclusion rather than performance. No runner gets left behind on a Trotters run. That is not a slogan; it is the actual operating principle. All paces are welcome, and the group adjusts accordingly. The crew runs Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings, covering routes that typically range from three to five miles on weeknights and stretch longer on Saturdays for those who are training for an upcoming race. The Saturday run functions as the anchor of the week, a longer, more deliberate effort that suits both the recreational runner looking to build mileage and the more goal-oriented runner preparing for a specific event. Wednesday nights offer something different: a midweek reset, a chance to clear the head after a few days of work and reconnect with the group before the weekend. Running can be an excellent outlet from stress, and the Trotters lean into that reality. The crew does not ask you to arrive with a certain pace in mind or a race on the calendar. They ask you to arrive. That openness has shaped the culture of the group in ways that go beyond the runs themselves and into the relationships that form when people commit to showing up regularly for one another.

Claremont as a Running City

Claremont sits at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, roughly 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and it has a texture unlike most cities in the greater LA basin. The streets around the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five undergraduate institutions and two graduate schools clustered together in a walkable, leafy setting, offer some of the most pleasant urban running in the region. The Trotters regularly run through these neighbourhoods, taking in the varied architecture of the campus buildings and the kind of dense, established greenery that feels rare in Southern California. It is a circuit that rewards attention. For those who prefer elevation, the Claremont Loop offers a hill climb with genuine payoff at the top, a sweeping view of the mountains and the valley below that earns its place as a local favourite. The climb is not trivial, which makes the view feel genuinely deserved. On the other end of the spectrum, the Pacific Electric Trail provides a paved, multi-use path that extends for over 20 miles through several cities, giving runners a flat and forgiving option when the legs need something less demanding. Claremont's range of terrain means the crew can vary routes without ever straying far from familiar ground, and that variety keeps the running week from becoming repetitive. The Claremont Village, with its independent boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants, provides a backdrop for post-run socializing that many larger cities would envy. There is something cohesive about the downtown area that encourages people to linger, and it has helped the Trotters turn the act of finishing a run into the beginning of the next part of the morning or evening.

Going the Distance Together

The decision to run the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon as a group was a meaningful one for the Claremont Trotters. Nancy was the catalyst, pushing the crew to commit to something that required months of preparation, shared suffering, and a level of collective accountability that shorter group runs do not demand. Training for a marathon with a crew changes the dynamic. Long runs become appointments. The Saturday morning gatherings take on more urgency. And the finish line, when you cross it alongside people you have trained with for months, carries a different emotional weight than crossing it alone. That marathon effort captured something essential about what the Claremont Trotters were trying to be from the beginning. A group that could hold each other to something, that could take on a challenge together and come out the other side with a stronger sense of what they had built. Around 40 people now call themselves Trotters, and the core crew of founders is still very much present, still running, still shaping the culture of the group in ways large and small. Emilio's logo is still the face of the crew. John's captions still tell its story. Nancy still motivates. Christina still leads.

Claremont's Running Calendar

The city itself provides a natural rhythm for runners beyond the weekly schedule. Each April, the Claremont 5K and Half Marathon bring the community together for a race through the city's streets, giving Trotters a local goal to work toward without the logistics of traveling to a larger event. In the summer, the Claremont Twilight 5K takes runners through the historic Claremont Village in the evening, offering a rare chance to experience the downtown area at pace and under different light. Thanksgiving morning brings the Claremont Turkey Trot, a festive and well-attended event that the Trotters treat as a communal celebration as much as a race. These local events give the Claremont Trotters a calendar to rally around, shared dates that punctuate the routine of weekly runs and give the group something to look forward to and train toward together. They also root the crew firmly in the life of the city, connecting the Trotters not just to each other but to the broader Claremont community that makes the city worth running through in the first place.

Find the Claremont Trotters

The Claremont Trotters are active on Instagram at claremonttrotters, where the crew shares updates on runs, events, and the ongoing life of the group. If you are based in Claremont or the surrounding area and looking for people to run with, the Trotters offer exactly what they set out to provide five years ago: a community to run with, on roads worth knowing, in a city that rewards the effort.