In March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the world temporarily shut down, everyone was looking for a way to safely leave the confines of their homes and get a little social interaction. For one group of Leawood neighbors, their solution is still going strong 18 months later.
This group includes Ben and Lara Pabst and their kids, Nora, 11, and twins Rhys and Harry, 10; Isaac and Liz Chopp and their kids, Stella, 7, and Leo, 4; and John Goldberg and Marla Brockman and their adult children, Daniel, Adena and Elana. Adena was a college senior studying in Chicago and came home when the pandemic hit; Elana was living in New York City and drove back as well.
“We would find ourselves hanging out in our driveway and see them walking by and all of us would be hungry for interaction with someone who wasn’t in our family,” Lara Pabst said.
Conversations on the driveway turned into hanging out on patios and then, since they were all walking and running more anyway, the idea came to form a running club and track their miles. The group started logging miles on March 19, 2020, and hit 100 miles within less than a week.
They collectively hit 1,000 miles just over a month later, on April 29, and threw a patio party to celebrate. They’ve had a party to celebrate every 1,000 miles reached since then.
“It was so nice, I felt like the shackles of quarantine were melted away...thank you, thank you. Lila tov,” John Goldberg said in a group text sent in May of 2020.
Rhys Pabst was a driving force behind the running club. He’s a member of Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy’s 100 Mile Club; every Monday, students run around the school field and they keep track of their total miles. Students can also send in miles they ran at home.
All of the Pabst children run and contributed to the running club’s miles — Harry is also a member of the 100 Mile Club and Norah is on the HBHA cross country team, which Brockman coaches — but Rhys made a concerted effort to log miles outside of school, and this past school year he was the top mile-getter in the 100-mile club, logging 180 miles.
“We were inspired by Rhys,” said his dad, Ben Pabst.
Since Rhys was already motivated to run and is a natural organizer, they decided that he should be the “commissioner” of the club. The commissioner is in charge of approving all new rules, like when the group decided to allow biking miles on a 3:1 ratio (every three bike miles equals one running mile).
“Everybody gives everybody ideas, and I guess I decide which ones are the best,” Rhys said.
The name of the club is Leawood Running & Drinking Team (the drinking is just for the adults, of course, when celebrating every 1,000 miles). The running club is a friendly endeavor. There’s no pressure to log a certain number of miles and no requirements other than the social ones, i.e., the celebratory parties.
The running club’s mile count is currently at 9,265 — although some miles will have surely been added by the time this article goes to print — and a big party is being planned to celebrate reaching 10,000 miles.
The club quickly turned into more than a motivator to log miles
A group text thread that started in March of 2020 is still going strong on a daily basis. The club updates each other on their miles, but through the course of the pandemic they also shared memes, jokes, podcast recommendations, pictures of puzzles completed and their thoughts on political developments, particularly around the November election.
Early in the pandemic, the group started letting each other know when they were putting in a grocery or Costco order.
“We all delivered all sorts of things to one another: fruit, cans of coconut milk, paper towels, etc. We were constantly on a quest for elusive Clorox wipes,” said Lara Pabst.
The families also started getting together for holidays, celebrating Sukkot and Yom Ha’atzmaut, and enjoying Shabbat dinners in the Goldberg’s garage, which they redid last year to better entertain in the time of COVID.
“This wouldn’t be a thing were it not for Marla’s hosting abilities. They make beautiful cocktails. Delicious spreads. We aspire to their level of hospitality,” Ben Pabst said.
The group was friendly before the pandemic and had long-established ties — Lara Pabst and Isaac Chopp grew up together and Brockman was Lara’s sixth-grade teacher — but the running club and the experience of weathering the pandemic together has brought the group even closer.
“We took care of each other through the election, we took care of each other through vaccinations…” said Ben Pabst.
“I think we’ll all have special places in each other’s hearts after this experience because we were sources of support during this crazy experience… It’s just special,” Lara Pabst added.
“We were friendly before but now it’s closer to family.”