In September of 2022, Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped and killed while running by herself early in the morning, an event that rocked the Memphis running community, and the entirety of Memphis as a whole.
In the wake of that, Josh Clark started HyperFocus, in order to give Memphians a safe and welcoming place to run together and develop a community.
“It started as a group chat where I would get a group to run together and be safe, and then it evolved into what it is today,” said Clark. In the following years, the group has steadily grown, with 50 runners being an average showing at their three weekly runs according to Clark.
They also partner with local small businesses, such as Team Car Coffee, who was out at the run from South Point Grocery on Saturday, or like local outdoors store, Grivet Outdoors, that does shoe demos with this group for their runs as well.
HyperFocus excels at creating community, something sorely needed in Memphis, and this partnering with local businesses is a shining example of this.
“Community is the whole reason why Josh even started this. We’ve had tragedies in this city, and one of them led to Josh wanting people to not be alone. There’s a group out there where everyone is welcome to come and run side by side, whether it's your first run ever or your 10,000th run. It’s a place where everyone is welcomed,” said Griffin King, a long time friend of Clark.
The most attractive part of the group is that range of skill levels and how the group embraces every single one that King mentioned.
“You can be as novel and novice a runner as you can possibly be, or you can be like me, a retired cross country runner, who enjoys running after college,” said Will Clayton, a former Division II runner at Christian Brothers University. “Ultimately, as the slogan of the group goes, we run for the joy of movement.”
Hyper Focus meets Monday nights for an easy run at Kinfolk in Harbortown, Thursday nights at the University of Memphis ROTC track for a workout, and Saturday mornings at South Point Grocery downtown for a long run.
