Maeve Bauer, Executive Editor
Sunrise Social, a group of runners and walkers, gather to enjoy the sunrise, sunset and each others’ company. They meet on Thursday mornings at Pony Pasture, Fridays at the Eastern Henrico Recreational Center and Sunday evenings at the parking lot of the River Road Shopping Center.
Ava Tankersley started Sunrise Social while studying abroad in Sydney, Australia and brought it back to Richmond with her in September 2024.
Tankersley said that they have around 150-300 people who join them on their runs. The sunset run on Nov. 1 had around 180 participants.
“We’ve been doing it for two-and-a-half-years and it still feels like it’s growing every week,” Tankersley said. “There’s always new people, and new people are always finding out about it, which is just so fun.”
Not only has the club grown in numbers, but has also expanded across state boundaries.
Tankersley moved to the Outer Banks in May 2025 and started an all girls sunrise beach walk after finding it hard to meet other girls her age, according to Sunrise Social’s Instagram.
While hosting OBX walks, Tankersley started saving up tips from other side gigs and started handing out coffee to all the girls as part of her passion project. This sparked a curiosity around the craft of coffee for Tankersley. After moving back to Richmond temporarily, she began working at Parousia Coffee in Scott’s Addition.
“I got a job to learn all about coffee, but I also learned all about matcha (and became obsessed),” Tankersley stated on Sunrise Social’s Instagram. “I found a trailer on Facebook market place and (pretty impulsively) bought it. I set out to convert this trailer to my dream mobile coffee/matcha shop.”
In May, Tankersley moved back to OBX and launched her coffee and matcha trailer. Though Tankersley occasionally returns to Richmond for pop-ups, she has left Sunrise Social RVA in the hands of her trusted team.
The team
Since Tankersley’s return to OBX, Luci Taylor has led the runs. She initially joined Sunrise Social last year a week after moving to Richmond, and has been involved in the club ever since.
“I became friends with Ava and a few of the other girls who help out with leadership and when Ava decided to move to the Outer Banks, I expressed that I’d be interested in helping carry out Sunrise Social club here,” Taylor said.
Taylor said she enjoys the community building aspect of Sunrise Social, saying it is not just running with people but the group will also go out and do other activities.
Jordan Clark is in charge of Sunrise Social’s communication. She first got involved after a friend recommended the group, knowing she was looking to join a run club.
“She knew someone that came here and then she brought me a couple times,” Clark said. “I was hooked since then and I pretty much come once a week, if not at least twice a week.”
People from all age groups come and join the group, middle and high schoolers, to people 40 and above, however the largest demographic of members are in their 20s and 30s, according to Clark.
“After college, I think it can be really hard to meet people in your community,” Clark said. “A lot of people recently that I’ve met, they’ve moved just recently to Richmond, so they just don’t know anybody and it pops up on their TikTok or their Instagram and then they decided to go ahead and try it.”
Many of the people who have joined are not runners, according to Clark. She attributes that to the way Tankersley has designed the runs to be welcoming and engaging for all experience levels, offering modifications for those who want a less intensive workout.
According to Sunrise Social’s Instagram, Tankersley purposefully excluded the word “run,” from the title to emphasize to people that it is not just for runners.
The rest of the leadership board consists of Sarah Grace Clarke, who is in charge of outreach and collaboration. Mary Browning and Luca Moroianu create content and take photos for Sunrise Social. Finn Jones and Ethan Pacheck lead the track nights and Nicole Novak runs the walk portion for the Sunday meeting.
The runners (and walkers) of run club
Jacob McMurdy and his dog, Roxy, frequently join Sunrise Social on their Sunday sunset gatherings, usually opting for the walking option. McMurdy and Roxy were dressed as a little monster and an exterminator for the group’s Nov. 1 Halloween sunset get-together.
McMurdy recently graduated from James Madison University and joined the club after wanting to connect with more people his age in Richmond.
Dressed as a runaway bride, Emily Knabel joined in on the Halloween run fun on Nov. 1. She has been attending Sunrise Social since she graduated college in May.
“I was a college athlete for two years… I just wanted to find a way to make community when I moved back to Richmond,” Knabel said. “I was definitely nervous to come back to the city and find people my age. It just gave me a really good outlet to do that.”
Though a good percentage of members are fresh from college, a number of participants are other community members looking for a chance to socialize.
Community member Avery Moncure, has attended Sunrise Social runs since it started in Richmond. He said his favorite part is the connections that are made within the club, and the photos everyone sends of the sunrises during the morning gatherings.
“It is just a very wholesome group,” Moncure said.
If you want to chase the sun with the group, find more information on their Instagram, @sunrise.social.club.rva.