For Francesca Ngozi Ezennolim, 21, the prospect of romance is not what brought her all the way from Reading, about 64km (40 miles) from London, on a Saturday morning, but the promise of community.
“I don’t have a lot of Igbo friends,” she said, adding: “I do have a lot of Nigerian friends – but it’s hard to find Igbo friends.”
Donning a black athletic outfit, she told the BBC she hopes the running club will fill that hole in her life.
And she is not alone.
A first-timer to the club, Jennifer Iwuamadi, 23, echoed the same sentiments.
“It’s so important to come to an Igbo run club because we get to socialise with our brothers and sisters. It’s a great way to get fit and network,” she said.
Although the Igbos are one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups and are prominent in the diaspora, many feel their culture is under threat. In 2006, the United Nations cultural organisation (Unesco) predicted that the Igbo language would become extinct by 2025.
However, in the UK, their numbers have risen over the last decade – from around 8,000 to 11,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In contrast, speakers of Yoruba, the other main language in southern Nigeria, have declined from 15,000 to 10,000 over the same period.
Nevertheless, some young Igbo people told the BBC they have struggled to make friends outside their parents’ community.
“I have so many Yoruba friends, but I want to meet people from my tribe,” Ms Ezennolim told the BBC.
“When people think about Nigerians, they don’t really think about Igbo. Nigeria is not just one piece, it’s multiple pieces,” said Mr Odoemene.
But isn’t it divisive to have a running club which focuses on Igbo culture?
The founders vehemently shake their heads.
“You don’t have to be Igbo to come to the run club,” said Mr Atumonyogo.
He adds that people from Iran, Italy, and the Caribbean have come to their sessions – and they encourage others to join in, learn about Igbo culture, ask questions, and immerse themselves in the vibrant atmosphere.
Yet, beneath the joy and camaraderie, there is a darker side to the Igbo story.
In Nigeria, many people still associate the Igbos with the 1967-70 Biafran war, which left some one million people dead after Igbo leaders in the south-east led a campaign to secede from the rest of the country.
Decades later, the wounds of the war remain raw, still shaping to some degree how Igbo people are viewed, both at home and abroad.
In his book The Trouble with Nigeria, the late Chinua Achebe, one of the most renowned Nigerian authors, who was Igbo, said: “Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo.”
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