A Sense of Community
Garinger enjoys going the distance for Run With Christ Running Club.
When he attended Worthington Christian, Will Garinger (WC ’23) admits that lacing up his shoes and going for a run ranked near the bottom of his list of favorite things to do.
“I was a goalkeeper, so I hated running,” said Garinger, a member of the Warriors’ 2022 Division III district championship team. “If I were to be completely honest, the only times I would run would be when I had to go for training.
“I despised running, but I enjoy things that push me.”
Garinger is now being pushed in a way he never envisioned. During a gap year from college, he started the Run With Christ (RWC) running group. On Sept. 7, RWC held its first event, which attracted around 150 runners. A week later, that number grew to 175 and 200 people before outgrowing the German Village park it started in.
“God has been so good,” Garinger said. “(ABC affiliate WSYX) did a story on it, and it went from 200-300 people to having a 600-person worship night, with tons of people coming to the altar.
“We consistently get 350-400 runners on a Saturday, even as it gets colder. We’ve had people fly in from Florida and New York and travel from Cincinnati and Cleveland to participate. Even Spectrum Sports from Boston drove down to interview with us.”
Last fall, people from Colorado, California, Hawaii, and Idaho contacted Garinger about starting RWC branches in their area. Run With Christ has expanded nationwide, with 18 cities creating teams and hosting first runs.
Garinger, who played soccer at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro during the 2023 fall season, said the club is 20% running and 80% ministry/outreach.
Garinger’s mission statement is to take people from isolation to integration within a community through faith and fitness.
“We wanted to make this an attractive run club, where people would say, ‘Hey, I want to do that,’” he said. “Once they’re there, people see this is what the community of God looks like. That’s going to make people want to know more.
“Often, people lack a sense of community in their lives. I’ve seen so many high-performance athletes known all over social media, but outside of their field, there’s no community for them. They don’t have that person they can go to for help.”
Garinger felt that sense of emptiness when he spent a semester of his junior year training for soccer at the Barsa Residency Academy in Phoenix, Ariz., and later as a goalkeeper in Greensboro, N.C.
On a visit to Santa Monica, Calif., Garinger remembers watching a club of 800 to 1,000 runners out on a weekend run.
After returning home from Greensboro last spring, he had an epiphany: What if he started a Christ-centered run club in Columbus?
“Everyone is hungry for three things: they want to feel known, seen, and loved,” Garinger said. “Those three items point people back to Jesus; they don’t know that yet.
“(I thought) Imagine having something so attractive to people and having a purpose for it. Adding Jesus to (a run club) brings 20 feet of depth behind something that already brings people together.”
Like many good ideas, Garinger immediately put that epiphany on the back burner. It seemed overwhelming to try to implement something like that.
“I didn’t know how to do this,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m so busy with life right now. I don’t even think I’d be able to give the right amount of time to make it how I’d want it to be.’”
One day, Garinger was weightlifting with Jordan Nishizaki (WC ‘15) and told him about his idea.
“Dude, you have this idea, this vision,” Nishizaki told Garinger. “Just act on it.”
“I was so anxious about this,” Garinger said.
“I needed to find a group who believed in this because I knew I couldn’t do this by myself.”
Once he began actively pursuing starting his club, Garinger was amazed at how things fell into place. Businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and social media influencers came out of the woodwork to pitch in.
Runners have also started spreading the word about Run With Christ.
“We have a guy that’s driving down from Buffalo, N.Y.,” Garinger said with a laugh. “I’ve never met this guy before, but he reached out through our website, and I’m offering him a place to sleep Friday night (before a Saturday event).
“I’m starting to realize this is making an impact on people. Before the first event, we had this guy show up alone. For the past two weeks, he’s been talking with every guy there and offering to pray with them.”
There has been one side effect of the club Garinger didn’t anticipate. He has become, gasp, a runner.
“When I decided to start a run club, I knew I couldn’t be a leader and suck at running,” Garinger said with a laugh. “I started focusing on running this past summer.”