PROFESSOR J
May 24, 2026
On a holiday known more for cookouts than workouts, this fitness crew builds community, culture and pride
ON MEMORIAL DAY 2025 —as hundreds of people moved between the bars of Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard in search of holiday food and drink specials—a local crew of fitness enthusiasts gathered nearby at the steps leading up to the First Base Gate at Nationals Park.
Zimberlyn Bolton — known as “Coach Zim” to fellow members of DC Run Crew — set up the portable speaker she uses to lead the group’s weekly “HIIT & Run,” a High-Intensity Interval Training workout followed by sprints.
It may have been a federal holiday known for cookouts, but for a few dozen members of DC Run Crew — and several newcomers who discovered the group through social media — it was not a day to sit back and relax.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Get those knees up! Ninety degrees,” Coach Zim exhorted the group as bass-heavy crunk music reflective of her Mississippi roots filled the air. Wearing a headset over her locs, she verbally prodded the three dozen or so participants to finish the final seconds of the exercise.
“Push through. You’re gonna get tired. That’s the whole point.”
A bell rang on the speaker and Coach Zim transitioned the group into broad jumps. Nearby was her toddler daughter, Amara, who often accompanies her mother and mimics the workouts she leads.
Such are the scenes that play out regularly in the nation’s capital thanks to members of the crew, which formed nearly a decade ago and grew out of a Nike run club based in Georgetown. Over time, it evolved into a collective that promotes fitness through communal exercise—burning countless calories, running countless miles together at iconic places throughout the nation’s capital and for some, completing marathons in cities such as Chicago and Miami.
Partnerships with brands
Sneaker companies routinely team up with the club to promote their wares by making sneakers available for test runs. You might even meet an “Ekin” – which is the backward-spelled name of a certain sneaker company that Ekins represent.
No matter what the DC Run Crew does, they do it with a certain cultural consciousness and flair.
On a cold February night, the group held a Black History Month run that passed landmarks such as the home of Carter G. Woodson and the Marvin Gaye mural in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood.
The strongest evidence of the group’s impact is in the people who show up weekly—many of them transplants to the city in search of community.
Monday HIIT & Runs take place at locations such as the stadium steps at Nationals Park or Banneker Track, which is just across the street from Howard University. On high-turnout days, as many as 100 runners participate.
Stepping it up
Like the famous “Rocky Steps” in Philadelphia, DC Run Crew’s workouts have turned pubilc staircases into places of ritual and inspiration. But instead of cinema, the group relies on social media. Its Instagram account, with nearly 12,000 followers, features near-daily posts highlighting workouts, long runs, volunteer cleanups, and cheer zones for local races.
Even without social media, the group draws attention simply by working out in public.
“I’m impressed by the turnout and the challenges they’re setting,” said Steven Balkam, a passerby who stopped to watch a workout at the stadium steps. “What a great use of these steps that otherwise lay empty most of the time.”
Coach Zim says the steps at Nationals Park represent her favorite training site because of their difficulty. Participants rotate through exercises—planks, crunches, jumps—on multiple levels, running between each set of steps.
“It’s more challenging,” she said. “And it’s another part of the city people don’t always get to.”
Beyond Nationals Park, the group runs the concrete bleachers at Banneker Track and occasionally tackles the steep staircase at Georgetown University known as the “Exorcist Steps.”
For Biko, a hiker named after South African activist Steve Biko, the appeal is familiar.
“I hike up mountains all the time,” he said. “But seeing that progress—getting to the top—it’s a different feeling.”
In 2025, the Memorial Day workout drew newcomers such as Dider Ruta, who recently moved to the area.
“I didn’t have a cookout to go to,” Ruta said, explaining why he chose the workout instead.
'Fitness is extra'
For Maurice Richardson—known within the group as “Reese” or “Moe the Beekeeper”—the draw was community.
“Fitness is extra,” said Richardson, who runs Diaspora Honey, a business inspired by his Caribbean roots. “Community is what I come for.”
Richardson, a readiness and plans manager for the U.S. Air Force Reserve, said the Memorial Day workout was his alternative to a holiday cookout.
“This is my cookout right here,” he said.
Newcomers consistently describe a welcoming environment. One runner who joined the group while returning from injury said the experience felt supportive rather than competitive, with runners grouped by pace and encouraged throughout.
Another participant who joined a Saturday long run described the accountability within the group.
“If someone was struggling, we encouraged them,” she wrote. “No one was left behind.”
That inclusive ethos traces back to DC Run Crew’s founders, Frank Tramble and his wife, Shekinah, who launched the group in 2017 after Tramble suffered a serious knee injury.
“I started running because I hated running,” Tramble said of his recovery at the group’s seventh anniversary celebration at Haynes Point. After multiple surgeries, his physical therapists told him running would be the hardest challenge.
He embraced it.
“I decided I would be one percent better every day,” he said. “Mentally, that changed everything.”
A legacy of challenge
Though Tramble credits Nike with giving him a foundation, he eventually parted ways and formed DC Run Crew with the goal of helping people push past self-doubt through collective effort.
One of the group’s most influential leaders was Marcus Hearn, whose legacy continues through an advanced subgroup known as “Hearn’s Hustlers.”
“He was a walking inspiration,” said crew leader Davon Singletary.
Hearn died in August 2023 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident on I-295. According to police, his motorcycle struck the rear of a van as traffic slowed.
His legacy lives on through the DC Run Crew.
At every Monday workout, leaders call “Hearn’s Hustlers” to the front. A dozen or more runners usually step forward. These are runners who can do the 200m in about 40 seconds or so.
“He was big on self-improvement,” said Daniel Lai, a middle school science teacher who runs with the group. “That comfortable discomfort.”
Coach Zim recalled bonding with Hearn over their shared Mississippi roots – which included a fondness for 7-Up Cake – shortly after she joined the crew in 2019.
“He made everyone feel like family,” she said.
DC Run Crew continues to meet on Mondays for HIIT & Runs, on Saturdays for long runs, and on holidays such as Memorial Day.
Weather permitting, interested persons can find the crew this Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, at 7 p.m. Banneker Track on Georgia Avenue, within the sightline of the famed clocktower at Howard University.
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, the story of DC Run Crew is one that embodies collective aspiration toward better physical fitness, improved mental fortitude and a more rewarding future – a future that members of the crew have decided to strive for not just individually but also together as a group.
Members of DC Run Crew do "partner push-ups" at Banneker Track in Washington, D.C.
Editor's note: This story was written and produced by Jamaal Abdul-Alim in his capacity as a 2024-2025 fellow for New America's Us@250 Initiative. The fellowship focuses on themes of pride, reckoning and aspiration.