48 Hours in Seoul: Part One

Private Road Running Club (PRRC 1936 or PRRC for short) is arguably the most influential run crew in Asia. Based in Seoul, Korea, over the past 5 years they’ve paved the way for other crews not just in their city, but throughout the Asia region.

Today, PRRC is a thriving community built on running, but with fingerprints all over Seoul. Crew members are artists, DJ’s, models, pizza shop owners, teachers, and more. They come together a couple of times a week, and when they do there’s a sense of closeness. Something more than a running crew or a community, PRRC feels like a family.

I’m in Seoul for a weekend and have the opportunity to meet the guys from PRRC. I’m connected to James Lee McQuown, one of the founders of PRRC, via a mutual friend that ran with him in Portland in 2017.

James is Korean-American, and grew up with an American father in the military and a Korean mother. His childhood was spent between Florida and Korea, but is now settled here in Seoul with his Korean wife Solne, and young daughter Selena.

This is Part One of a weekend in Seoul with PRRC.

By the time Friday night rolls around, I’ve been in Seoul for 48 hours, not quite long enough to get comfortable with the bitter cold that has swept the city. It doesn’t seem to rise above 0 until 11am, and the sun sets before 5pm.

I get a text from James. “Hey man, a few of us are meeting our friend from Tokyo in Gangnam and going out for drinks, you should come”. I couldn’t, as I had other plans.

I was supposed to meet up with the guys from Social Running Crew Seoul, but unfortunately I caught the wrong bus and ended up an hour out of the city (who knew one stop on the bus was 57 minutes after the previous stop?!).

I suggest to James we meet up the next day instead, and he tells me the group has a track workout, so I should arrive at 9am.

Worried about a repeat of the bus incident the night before, I get to the track at 8:15. It gives me a chance to check out the surroundings and get my own workout in.

Immediately I see a couple of guys in PRRC kit (later identified as Dae-Kun and Y.J.) doing 400m efforts. We all go through our own sessions, me wondering if they were the guys I would be chatting to this weekend, and I’ve no doubt them wondering about the western guy wearing shorts in -2 degrees.

James arrives just as we all finish our workouts, and we head to a local café to get out of the cold.

I learn that Dae-Kun and Y.J. are two of the faster runners in the group, but they drift in an out of form depending on how seriously they take the Seoul nightlife. Dae-Kun, a single man with a good job and a fast car, is known to enjoy a night out more than most.

James gives me the lowdown on everything related to PRRC while we drink our coffee.

When it was started 5 years ago by six friends, including James, Make-1, and JBW, it was a way to balance out the partying each were doing. James is a model and DJ, and Make-1 is one of Seoul’s most in demand artists.

“We would meet up at our friend’s record shop. At first it was really rough, we knew nothing about distance and pace. We would do an out and back run and go too far”.

The rules at the beginning were simple; show up, run until you couldn’t, and then leave without socialising afterwards. They knew that grabbing a beer or a meal afterwards would only take them back to where they had been. Slowly, friends and friends-of-friends heard about the running and wanted to get in on the action.

“At first it was just a small group of us who knew each other very well, then friends of friends started hearing about it. Then all of a sudden you could show up and see just a bunch of strangers…and at first I didn’t know how to think about that. But then you quickly see who is committed and who’s serious".

PRRC 1936 gives a nod to Korean history through its name and logo. The 1936 in the name references Son Kee-Chung, Korea’s gold medallist in the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Son Kee-Chung was competing under the Japanese flag as Japan occupied Korea during that period.

“We recognise our past. A lot of Korean culture is about recognising the past. Our name as well is about running your own private road and your own private struggle through life”.

The PRRC logo is a Corinthian helmet, to reflect the relic that was awarded to Son for winning gold.

Switching gears, James tells me about the set up for PRRC. There are open runs every week that stay true to the original PRRC program, and then there’s the more serious offshoot to PRRC: Private Track.

(Ed: actually there are a number of other offshoots to PRRC; Seoul Venus (women's team), Private Trail (trail running), UCANSWIM (swimming), PRRC-Tri (triathlons))

Private Track is a closed group, details closely guarded by the otherwise sweet natured Hye-Rin. If Hye-Rin deems you’re serious enough about your running, she might add you to the group. Until then, keep putting in the miles and earn your position.

As we head back to the track, I ask what exactly PRRC are doing today. James informs me the group will be visited today by a sports brand that is keen to get feedback on some prototypes. The influence of PRRC is apparently not limited to their connection to urban running culture, but extends to running products from major brands.

We’re met on track by a couple of representatives from the brand, who talk the group through the prototypes and what they're looking for in the feedback. They’re here to get feedback on some prototype footwear they’re working on. After a warm up in their current shoes, the group switch into the prototype and run some laps before gathering to give feedback.

Observing the group talking about what they just experienced, it’s obvious this isn’t their first time articulating what they like and don’t like about a shoe. It’s a considered discussion that goes for over an hour, only concluding because the brand reps are getting too cold to continue.

Instead, we move to a local lunch spot where the conversation continues. More prototypes are distributed, this time focusing on the uppers of the shoes.

As I take a quiet moment to look around and observe the group, I notice an effortless sense of style from all of the lunch tables. From Kwan-Woong rocking a matching PRRC tracksuit to Han-Jun’s beanie (cue stupid question from me “hey man, you know your beanie is inside out, right?” Han-Jun replies stony faced “it’s made this way”), to Make-1 wearing Off White Zoom Fly’s signed by Virgil Abloh.

After lunch I ask James if I can sit down with a couple of the guys for a deeper chat about running and their thoughts on the Seoul running scene. We head to another local café, where James declares he’s had enough coffee for today, and at 12:30 pm decides beer is a better option.

Make-1 is responsible for the look of the crew, guiding the PRRC name onto a range of different technical and lifestyle apparel, caps, bags, and other items.

“We’re from a street culture background, so we wanted something that reflected our lifestyle. We’re not part of the old guard, we’re young. Our gear reflects that”.

James jumps in “We know a heap of designers and if we have a certain idea Make-1 will work with them on their ideas and then produce them in his studio. He literally prints them right in his studio”.

When PRRC wanted their own technical running caps, Make-1 designed the panel construction and worked with a factory to ensure they could produce the cap to the specifications PRRC needed.

As we wrapped up our conversation and went our separate ways, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by what the guys and girls of PRRC had built. There’s none of the typical bravado or in-your-face attitude of some run crews, and perhaps that comes from the maturity of being around for 5 years.

I was eager to see what they had when it came to the long run, and the chance to get another glimpse into the inner circle of PRRC.

Read Part Two of our feature with PRRC here