We recently caught up with Connor, one half of the New Zealand outfit Grave Runners to chat about the running community, secret adventures and inspiring dirtbags to get off the couch...

Connor! How are you? How’s life been treating you recently? Thanks for agreeing to sit down and talk about running, traveling and ‘raving from the grave.’

I’m well thanks, hope you are too! Life has been good recently. Still getting back into the swing of things after returning home from the USA. The dust from the desert is still settling.

I’m not sure if ”Raving from the Grave" was a typo or not, but "Rave Runners” without the “G” has definitely come up as a play on words before haha. We are still yet to plan our own rave though, I wouldn’t say it’s off the cards completely. Could be fun ;)

So tell me a little more about Grave Runners – what is it? A group, a club, a mindset? How did this all get started? And what makes the GR community a little different than your local ‘run club?’

It started out as a GrassRoots Run Crew in NZ on the brink of covid. Logan and I (Co-Founders) were cooped up together and found a shared love and value for running. We identified that it was helping us navigate adversity in our lives at the time and felt as though like minded individuals may equally benefit from it. What I refer to as the counterculture - Artists, Photographers, Designers, Tattooists, Skateboarders etc. Not your quote on quote “traditional athletes”!

I noticed a shift in culture and it became appealing to take care of yourself, so inspiring the dirtbags to get off the couch was our initial motivator here, as that's how we saw ourselves! We have evolved a lot since then but this is part of our origin story from GR’s formative years.

So flash forward to the start of 2025 – what has the crew been up to? I heard you all took a little team trip overseas? How was it re-connecting with some of the crew after some time apart?

We recently came back from competing in [REDACTED] (an unsanctioned relay race) we were the first dedicated kiwi (New Zealand) team to participate in this event, which felt like an honour representing NZ on the world stage and having the support from our community back home!

You asked about GR being a mindset, I feel like this is something we have evolved into over the years. Logan and myself now living overseas, we have taken these practices with us, even if it's just in our day to day routines.

GR is still running in NZ and we have a crew holding it down there in our absence, paving the way for what the crew represents locally, as I feel it's forever changing. It was really important for us leaving NZ that we kept the flame alive as we felt like people were still really benefiting from it.

In terms of further abroad, I think that's where opportunities like [REDACTED] or Subspace (event series created by AM:PM.RC, Kings Cross Track Club & Grave Runners) come into fruition. It’s an opportunity for us to spread our wings and water the garden that is in our own backyards. It also creates opportunities for our OG members abroad to rekindle, which [REDACTED] and Subspace are great examples of facilitating this.

NZ has been super transient post covid, so creating a feeling of a home away from home, whether it's running with an affiliated run crew overseas, or always having a home to go back to in NZ, it's taking that GR mindset with you in your stride and applying it to the pavement. Our crew don't come to Grave Runners, they are Grave Runners!

What’s it like taking your unique approach to running, community and connection abroad? Did you meet anyone that you feel like aligned with the GR ethos?

Running is a universal language. Someone should print that on a T-Shirt, if I don’t beat them to it! The running boom is obviously real and happening and there’s a capitalistic approach that very much exists, however there’s also this sense of it being a small world and these communities or run crews being really well connected globally or in close proximity.

Speaking to people overseas that identify with or have heard of Grave Runners always astounds me, but it also gives me confidence that we are on the right track and you can still be paving the way from this side of the world!

A good example would be crossing paths with Mikey Kratzer (New Balance athlete & ultra runner) in Vegas. I feel like that dude embodies the essence of what GR stands for whether he knows it or not. Obviously not to profile our audience, but seeing people that look like him visually and how they express themselves, prioritising their health and well being has a lot of influence.

Again, it’s become cool to take care of yourself, as opposed to the era when I grew up in Skateboarding & Snowboarding. The narrative has changed, for the better in my opinion!

And this amazing experience you had – I know the event itself was top secret – but what does it feel like to work towards a goal like this together as a crew? And more importantly, how does it feel to look back on it now that the dust has settled?

Whoops, I already mentioned it, hard to keep this one underwraps! It was a lot of hard work to be honest, running is also really hard. But it's a massive accomplishment at the same time. I’m learning that all the best stuff in life is typically quite hard, putting yourself through the pain to come out the other side with a new experience and perspective, that's growth.

I can’t speak for the entire team, but I’m really proud that we did it. We pulled it off. We did what we said we were going to do! It makes me think of what’s next and without sounding too cliche, anything feels possible. I’m excited for where my feet will take me next, quite literally…

So huge start to the year indeed! What’s next for you all? Anything we should be on the look out for? We’ll be marking our calendars.

I’m still in the “doing” phase post [REDACTED] with commitments to rolling out with all of the beautiful content we captured (refer to our IG page as reference). Following this we will be hosting a gallery exhibition with Tempo Journal this July in Melbourne, Australia.

It’s really important for me that we take the opportunity to showcase and celebrate all of the effort that went into it, it will be nice for Kayle and I (Kayle Lawson, Photographer & Videographer) to put a ribbon on [REDACTED] as it has occupied a lot of space in our minds for the past six months or so. Also to bring a tangible element to the content so it doesn’t just get lost in the wash like most other things on social media. Keep an eye out for more details on this to come soon!

Thank you again Connor & the Grave Runner’s community, for telling your story. Looking forward to running with you all soon! 

Thank you for having me and providing the space. Also for Knog’s support illuminating the night and keeping our crew safe out there on the road! Lights out.