If I find myself in Los Angeles on a Monday night, I always try make it out to a BlacklistLA run. The route involves heading to a mural of street art or two, taking in some of the sights of LA along the way. I do those two things on my own a lot, but there’s something about sharing in the experience with a couple hundred others. I’ll never forget the first time I went, meeting at the glorious Disney Concert Hall, and then heading out into the streets of LA, at 10pm, about 200-300 of us, running into the night. It was heady and exhilarating!
Following along on Instagram, I’ve watched how BlacklistLA has grown – from putting on their first 5K in honour of the City of Los Angeles’ birthday to having an artist create a special BlacklistLA mural. So I was really excited to talk to founder Erik Valiente and find out more about his personal love of running and how it fuels his passion for the group. He’s not a “traditional pen on paper artist,” as he sees it, but he brings a creativity to the routes he curates around the city, fostering a love for running and community that is absolutely inspiring.
“If you commit 100% to something and expect nothing, but you do it from the bottom of your heart, because you want to see people happy, you get to see your community change,” he says. Erik shares how he stepped out of the car, and started appreciating seeing life on foot, or by bike, which is his preferred mode of transport now. We met in Downtown LA’s Little Tokyo, and talked and ran…
For more on BlacklistLA, click on over to their site, and follow them on Instagram. And if you live in LA, go on one of their runs – you won’t regret it!
