🏃😍 Run clubs are the new dating apps

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

Dunkin’ 🤝 fashion girlies. The home of your favorite iced coffee just released these iconic phone cases that are designed to look like you’re carrying an iced medium regular at all times — ice cubes and everything — for just $15. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Karen Read’s trial comes to an end

• Abortion care is here to stay

• A smelly surprise 

Up first…

DATING

Will run for love

The only swiping you’ll be doing on this dating app is the sweat off your brow. Enter: Running clubs (seriously).

🥵 According to TikTok, running clubs aren’t just for running these days. A quick search on the app will lead you to a slew of running-clubs-as-dating-apps videos, including everything from testimonies as to why it works, to discourse on why it defeats the purpose of running clubs altogether. And then there are videos that say it all without saying anything, see: this group of gorgeous, chiseled, young people running together. 

🏃 Running clubs have become some young adults’ social hours. “When I was a teenager, the watering hole was the mall. We would just link up and hang out,” said Jeremy Guevara, running captain of Boston’s PIONEERS Run Crew. But with the decline of third spaces and more young people hopping on the marathon quarter-life crisis bandwagon, running clubs give them a chance to get in a workout while hanging out with like-minded people. A win-win. 

😍 But endorphins aren’t the only chemicals flowing. Guevara admits he’s seen plenty of running club flings. After all, when you gets a bunch of active, single, and pretty people together, “it’s inevitable,” he said. 

📱 The IRL nature of running club certainly doesn’t hurt one’s dating game. “The best way to find true love is to meet lots of people,” said Paul English, CEO of Lola Dating, a new Boston-based dating app all about getting folks on an in-person date STAT. It really is “a numbers game of interactions IRL so you can best evaluate chemistry,” English said.

😅 Running clubs can offer first date energy sans first date pressures. Questions like, “what do you do for work, where are you from, and what do you for fun?” are the same questions people generally ask when meeting a new friend at a run club that they do on a first date, said Emily Putzig, who actually met her husband while running with The Most Informal Running Club in Boston. 

📱 But don’t be so quick to delete your dating apps. Especially if you don’t actually like running. If someone is just showing up as a way to meet someone romantically, “it can feel a little intense all of a sudden,” Putzig said, and they don’t often last as long because they’re not getting what they want (and shocker, some people are just looking to run!). “The people who genuinely want to run and would like to meet someone stick around longer.”

QUICK QUESTION

🏃 Would you go to a running club to try and find love?

TOGETHER WITH BOSTON SEAPORT

Out: 🚗 💨 ⛽️ In: ⛴️ 🌊☀️

🌊 This is your sign to text your travel buddy, because Seaport is your launching pad for summer fun. With plenty of options for on-the-go munching like Stubbys breakfast sandwiches or Cardullo’s charcuterie boards and canned cocktails, you’ll never run out of fuel for your next adventures. Skip the plastic bag and pack your picnic in a tote from L.L.Bean or a backpack from Filson, then hop on the Seaport Ferry for a trip to Spectacle Island or P-Town. Don’t let Sumner Tunnel closures ruin your vibe — plan your next ferry trip today and enjoy the scenic route. 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🔍 Boston’s IRL true crime saga is almost over. Closing arguments in the infamous, nearly two-and-a-half-month long Karen Read trial are scheduled for today, meaning we could be just days away from a verdict. The jury will decide if Read is guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Boston cop John O’Keefe, who she is accused of hitting with her car and leaving to die after a night of drinking. Meanwhile, her attorneys say she was framed in a police cover-up. Long story short: It’s extremely juicy and is keeping Greater Boston at the edge of its seat. Catch up on the trial here. 

🙅‍♀️ Gov. Maura Healey is putting her foot down on emergency abortion access. Healey signed an executive order on Monday to protect emergency abortion care in Mass. days before a Supreme Court decision could jeopardize it. The order doubles down on both Mass. residents’ right to abortion care in emergencies, and on protections for providers and out-of-state patients who come here to receive care. And what’s more, the Department of Public Health has also issued a reminder to healthcare providers that they’re obligated to provide such care under threat of losing their license. Go off!

🏢 Working from home is taking on a whole new meaning. Gov. Healey just shelled out $15 million to Mayor Michelle Wu’s new program that offers major tax breaks for converting underused office buildings into housing. The program, which kicked off in October, is meant to help bring more foot traffic to the emptier post-COVID downtown landscape, and has so far spurred plans for about 412 new units. Thanks to this cash, it’ll keep running through the end of 2025, and officials expect an additional 300 to 500 planned units in that time.

🏆 The Celtics parade wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Hearing that the parade alone might’ve boosted the local economy by up to 20% might sound wild. But if you were five-people deep outside of Government Center Friday morning, it probably doesn’t. And neither would the fact that some parade-goers got a little too rowdy, deciding to use local firefighters’ cars as stepping stools to see the action, damaging them in the process and getting some officials seriously peeved.

MEDIA SPONSORSHIP

Want to help shape Boston’s future for young people? This is your sign.

B-Side is a proud supporter of SPARK Boston Council, the leadership and civic engagement force that’s giving 20 to 35-year-olds a seat at Mayor Wu’s table — meaning you have a huge opportunity to advocate for your demographic (Boston’s largest demographic at 39% of the city!) and make a noticeable impact. Apply here by July 5 at 11:59 p.m.

GIVEAWAY

Together with Brave Daughters 

Enter to win two complimentary solid 14k gold Forever Bracelets from Brave Daughters! If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below* To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on June 27, 2024. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

A smelly surprise 

Have you ever looked at a flower and thought: “It’s nice, but I wish it smelled like rotting meat?” Well, we have great news for you.

A rare corpse plant (yes, that’s the real name) is in bloom at the Arnold Arboretum, a phenomenon that can take up to 10 years to occur, only lasts about two days, and yes, smells pungently of rotting meat. 

This particular corpse plant, which is affectionately named “Dame Judi Stench” by the Arboretum staff, began blooming on Sunday, which means it’ll probably close up again by the end of today, and won’t bloom again for another two or so years.

And while only Arboretum members are able to get tickets to see the plant in person (all the better for your nose), you can check out a livestream of the bloom here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

👃 Thanks for reading! Gia has actually seen (and smelled) one of these plants in bloom before, and she can confirm that the experience is … truly unique.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, @seaportbos, for supporting local journalism and offering Bostonians the perfect spot for food, fun, and easy summer travel. 

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].