Eric, Will, Iggy, Kyle, John, Clayton, and Karl started meeting every Tuesday morning outside Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg — not because it was a scenic route, not because the parking lot was particularly inspiring, but mostly because someone had to pick a spot and that was the spot.

They ran through the Chicago winter. Week after week. In the dark, in the cold, occasionally questioning their life choices. People started asking what the group was called. They were running laps around a mall at dawn, so — Mall Cops. Obviously.

Word got out. More runners joined. Then more. Turns out a lot of people in the Chicago suburbs also enjoy suffering voluntarily at unreasonable hours. The group kept growing, the Tuesday runs kept happening, and at some point it stopped being a weird thing seven friends did and became an actual community.